Cleaning Crew

[Carstanos]

I need some help to figure out what I need for a cleaning crew. I have 120gal tank with nothing but live rock in it atm (about 100lbs worth) Can anyone tell me the numbers of snails, crabs, stars, shrimp i might need for this size aquarium? I have looked at some of the "packages" you can find at online stores but I am not sure I like the mixes they offer. If anyone can help it would be appreciated.

[OrionGirl]

What fish will you be stocking? This will make a big difference in what cleaners you can get. There are many fish that will dictate what types of cleaners you can keep.

Personally, I prefer a variety of snails--nassarius, cerith, and a larger species of grazer, micro stars (lots, no need to count!), serpent stars, bristleworms, crabs (I like sally light foot best, but emeralds will work in many setups as well), and then a few shrimp--skunks are my favorite. I tend to avoid hermits--they are too hard on the snails, and I never found them to be as good at cleaning up detritus as the worms and snails.

[benjen]

If you want hermits, you're probably better off sticking with the scarlets if possible. Otherwise OG pretty well covered it.

http://www.etropicals.com/product/categ.cfm?siteid=45&pCatId=1190
etropicals offers build-your-own cleaner packages. If you spend over $60, the shipping is free. If you think you'll end up spending over $175, you might be able to get what you want better from www.liveaquaria.com with free shipping.

It looks like www.wctropicalmarine.com is back open too. I was going to go with them before the closed in early July, but they are now under new management and I don't know whether they are good or not. They do at least offer "pick your own" cleaner packages and are pretty cheap, but cost $25 in shipping no matter what.

How many critters you need depends on what degree of light you'll be running. Also, if you didn't get a lot of fresh live sand, I'd suggest investing in some varient of live sand activators or detrivore pack:
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=L-CRUDE&Category_Code=Livesand
http://www.ipsf.com/
http://www.garf.org/algae2/janitor.html#grunge
http://www.inlandaquatics.com/prod/prod_detrit.html

These will get you most of your micro-fauna that can both clean your tank and make food for other creatures. It can be a good idea to add this a while before you add regular cleaners, so that they can get established.

[Carstanos]

As of right now I only have a couple fish picked out for certain for sand I have about 150lbs of caribian play sand and 30lbs of live sand from LFS. The fish I know I would like thus far are: Flame Angel, Coral Beauty, Royal Gramma, and a Blue Hippo Tang. As for Light I have 2x55W PC. Which I am hopeing to get a 4x55W with 2daylight and 2blue bulbs soon.

[Cearbhaill]

If you plan on adding a Hippo I would strongly urge you to set up a quarantine tank first as part of your initial planning/spending.

Actually I would urge it for any fish going into a marine tank, but Hippo's are about the worst fish out there for getting marine ich- which is difficult enough to deal with even in a bare tank. Any effective ich treatment is lethal to your inverts, and once fish go into a large tank full of live rock it is nigh impossible to get them out without dismantling your rockwork.

Much easier to deal with it before the fish go in.

OK- back to the cleanup crew conversation....

[becky_e]

Also, a word of warning about your dwarf angels (flame angel and coral beauty.) You really can only have dwarf angel in your tank. They'll fight with eachother. Also you should wait for your tank to be mature before you get a dwarf angel, they can be sensitive to poor water quality. You definitely can have one, but you may want to choose which one you like best and then get something else to replace the other dwarf angel.

[Jman]

I just got a flame angel. I had a hard time deciding which way to go CB or FA. I waited until the tank had been up and running for 6 months and the tank had been free of ANY problems for over 3 months before getting it. The fish is beautiful! I have to post a pic!

On a negative note I believe the little bugger ate my feather dusters. I had some nice orange feather dusters hitchhike in on my LR and two of them had grown quite a bit. the angel is always grazing on the LR and I'd have to bet that it got a hold of the feathers:(


One last thing. If you are new to this let me just advise you that water changes in a salt water tank are not optional. Hardy fish in a freshwater aquarium can handle several weeks without a change if you don't overfeed. a good weekly water change routine is paramount with a salt water tank. We have just too much effort and money in a SW tank to lose fish we don't have to.