steve8855

Normally I don't like critter solutions, but a few more astrea may help, but the real question is, what is your source water?

The tank is six months old and you have three snails. If you were to work at a circus and were told three of you were hired to keep it clean, how would you three be able to keep up with that task? You need at least 30 snails in your 60g. At the very least, three of those huge Mexican Turbo Snails. 10 Ceriths, 10 Astrea, 10 nerites, a couple of stomatellas.... you get the idea. Diversity.

I've heard of Big Al's. Do you go there in person, or order online?

Thanks for joining our site - welcome!

you have to go to big als in person for livestock and its the only place i am able to find to get livestock from in ontario.

30 snails really that much seems like alot but i dont know much so ill give that a try how many do u have in your 400 gallon?

Andcani ask what do u think about hermit crabs good or bad

The recommended rule is 1 snail per gallon. That sounds like a lot to people, and I can understand why, but the more you have in there to mow down the algae growth that occurs daily, the better. For my tank, I put in 100 Astreas at a time. My clean up crew consists of:

50 Astreas ( many have died or been consumed in the past six months; I replenish twice a year)
25 Ceriths (large)
200 Ceriths (tiny)
25 Nassarius
50 hermits
3 Fighting Conchs (one is the size of a lemon, the other two are 1.5" long)
7 Tigertail Cucumbers to clean the sand
2 1" Cowries
3 Emerald Crabs
5 Serpent Starfish (2 tan, 1 banded, 1 red, and a black brittle)

I'm ready to add another 100 Astreas, but it is so hot that I don't want to receive livestock under these conditions.

You might add a Tuxedo Urchin too.

For hermits, the best ones are the red legs. They seem to be less destructive. If you want to purchase blue legs, get the tiniest ones you can find because they aren't able to harm snails. The prettiest blue legs are the orange and red striped or the Halloween Hermits, but they can rip zoas apart.

Cleaner / Peppermint / Blood shrimp are also nice to add. Arrow crabs and Coral Banded are helpful as well.

100 snails wow that would cost me around $300 + 13%tax at big als

Thanks for the help

I know. But you can add 10 per week perhaps.

I buy my clean up crew online. 100 Astreas at $0.34 each in a group buy allows me to get my share for about $42 shipped.

I don't know about shipping to Canada with customs at all.... but check out www.reefcleaners.org. They have an excellent reputation and offer the best prices I've found. :-)

melev can i ask what site you get yours from? i e-mailed the reefcleaners.org but it seems they only ship to us thanks for the help everyone

Wow... I am suddenly cognizant that we have not near enough cleaners either! Question though... how many cleaners should one keep in the fuge? When assessing the "1 per gallon" rule... do you include the fuge gallonage? How many of these inverts may we add at one time. The DT is 75G and the fuge is 35G
Thanks in advance.

I have a 75 gallon tank. What I do/did was everytime I would go to the lfs I would get a few different kind of snails and or hermits. I would also pick up a couple peppermint shrimps and a crab. I also have a sand sifter starfish who i find does a pretty good job. We always want something from the lfs when we visit. Just tell yourself that instead of buying fish or coral for the next month or two I'm going to get more clean up crew. They really can be just as interesting as fish or coral, sometime more.

I only count the display tank gallonage. And honestly, my system is 300g of liquid volume, but I have a lot of glass, rock, and sand to keep stirred and clean.

Originally Posted by steve8855

melev can i ask what site you get yours from? i e-mailed the reefcleaners.org but it seems they only ship to us thanks for the help everyone

I use KeysCritters.com for my goodies. And they have a lot of stuff besides the normal stuff.

JimM, no cleaners in the fuge, the purpose of the fuge is to grow algae to be havested from the system along with all the nitrate and phosphate it absorbed. Cleaners eat algae and poop it out so no nutrients are removed that way.