CUC for 75g mixed reef

moonstream

moonstream

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Nov 5, 2007
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Jayne
my 75g needs to have a new CUC, since the old one was pretty much demolished by a mini crash a few months ago. I am adding 2" of sand into tBB display, and 4" into the BB fuge. tanks is mostly hard corals, with some softies and zoas and some rics and mushrooms. 10g water changes every week.

I am hoping to order my CUC from reef cleaners tomorrow night, and wanted to check and see what the thoughts were. do I have enough critters? too many?
15 blue leg hermits (have 6 now)
1 fighting conch
25 nass. snails
20 cerith snails
(plus the 10-15 astrea snails I already have; and I ordered 15 red mangroves)
 
Personally, I think that's a lot of hermits. In my experience, the best snails are ceriths and trochus. The trochus because they don't discriminate between any types of algae...they eat EVERY kind...I cannot stress that enough. Plus, they are QUICK, they are strictly nocturnal (they don't hang out on the glass during the day for no reason), very efficient and they can flip themselves back over if they fall on their "backs". Ceriths do a good job of keeping the sand bed clean and stirred. When you are fully stocked on fish, I would reccommend a tiger tail cucumber as well.
 
okay, thanks. I've decided to change my order to
25 cerith snails
25 nass. snails
6 blue leg hermits (plus the 6 I have now)
1 fighting conch
(and then the 12ish astrea snails and 2 serpent stars I already have).
 
That's a lot of snails! I would buy them gradually...I usually buy mine a few at a time from the LFS because if you don't have enough food for them to eat...well they will die. But if your tank is an algae buffet, then go right ahead.
 
I definitely agree with the above. Back off on the total number of snails and build to that amount in a much more gradual manner (assuming your tank's algal community can support them). The idea isn't to outright eliminate the algae (these animals shouldn't be used for that), but rather to keep it in check within general maintenance levels.
 
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