My tank is still cycling but I been looking into cleaning crews. I have noticed that the crews for my size aquarium are rather large (125gal) Is it safe to add that many creatures to the tank at one time? Will it send my tank into cycling again? Thanks for the Help
Cleaning Crew
- Thread starter Xzibit
- Start date
It will not, in my opinion, send it back into a cycle.
When I cycled my 150gal. tank, I added 25 large turbo snails, 10 medium turbo snails, 150 blue legged hermits, and 3 sand sifting starfish.
Once my initial cycle was done, it never cycled again. Afterwards, I divided the cleaner crew into different tanks, and even sold some back to my local fish store.
When I cycled my 150gal. tank, I added 25 large turbo snails, 10 medium turbo snails, 150 blue legged hermits, and 3 sand sifting starfish.
Once my initial cycle was done, it never cycled again. Afterwards, I divided the cleaner crew into different tanks, and even sold some back to my local fish store.
I'd recommend waiting a minimum of 2-3 weeks between adding a cleaning crew and adding fish. However, if you quarantine your fish for a month (You are quarantining, right?), you should be able to buy both at the same time and deposit them in different tanks. The window is because invertebrates can certainly carry fish parasites as hitchhikers even though they are immune. Also, it gives time for the life on your live rock to adjust to the new macro-organisms before you start adding what will be your top predators (fish) to the tank. You want to let the smaller ecosystem stabilize a bit before adding more pressures.
Also, keep in mind that a lot of cleaning "packages" aren't actually matched up to what you really want or need with your tank. If you don't have metal halides, there is no way you'll grow enough algae to feed 1 hermit per gallon + 1 snail per two gallons as some places recommend. Plus not all hermits are created equal, nor snails. In particular, I dislike TBS's cleaner "package" because it gives way too many hermits (and not even red/scarlet hermits which are less brawling) and several other cleaners well out of whack proportion-wise.
Also, keep in mind that a lot of cleaning "packages" aren't actually matched up to what you really want or need with your tank. If you don't have metal halides, there is no way you'll grow enough algae to feed 1 hermit per gallon + 1 snail per two gallons as some places recommend. Plus not all hermits are created equal, nor snails. In particular, I dislike TBS's cleaner "package" because it gives way too many hermits (and not even red/scarlet hermits which are less brawling) and several other cleaners well out of whack proportion-wise.