Let's talk about cleaning crews

[albert_dao]

Okay, are there any other people out there, like me, who have tanks that are run without cleaning crews, who experience no noticeable drawbacks?

I've not run cleaning crew for just a little over a year now. I don't have any weird algae outbreaks or excess detritus. In addition, I never have to deal with problems like dead snail shells, frags getting knocked over, or things getting caught in pumps and plumbing.

FYI, 150 gallon SPS dominated reef tank. Live rock and protein skimming with carbon support. The tank is BB. I have just started up on Zeovit, but I have been experiencing the same tank cleanliness for a long time prior.

On the other side, how many of you out there have experienced profound improvements in tank cleanliness with the addition of a cleaning crew?

For the sake of this discussion, I'm going to ommit the benefits of problem solving animals like emerald crabs (bubble algae), peppermint shrimp (aiptasia) and Mexian turbo snails (turf algae) for the reason that these are problems which are introduced, not relative to the condition of a tank.

DISCUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[OCDP]

The only clean-up crew I need is a few snails. Without them, I notice much more algae on the glass, lots more detritus buildup and so on.... but I also have a small tank, so I am sure that plays a role in all of that. I definitely think snails are important for a clean up crew... JMO.

[muck]

What kind of maintenance does this tank recieve? weekly? monthly?

[Kryten]

Hourly? j/k The fact that it's BB probably plays a role. Although, now that my nano has been running for a while, I'm starting to be concerned about my cleaning crew going hungry. Aside from a very light film of algae that grows on the glass, and I assume the rocks as well, there's not much else for the algae eaters to feed on. There is zero nuisance algae left.

[Funky_Fish14]

I have... 4 snails in my 75g, and one hermit crab which I just bought in the past couple days cause it looked neat. All I've had for the past year has been those few snails(I think I lost one since then). I notice they make tracks in the very small film of algae that forms on the glass, but they dont seem to be very beneficial in my system, and I've found hermit crabs to be more of a nuicance than anything, producing alot of detrius and eating little algae. I had alot of hermits and snails in my tanks in the past, with the same result I have now.

Epoxy sandbed with no skimmer, just a fuge.... 1 clown, 1 pajama cardinal, 1 mandarin, 1 orange shoulder tang.

Chris

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Kryten

Hourly?

Personally, I could not live without snails. Ok I could live without them but my reef sanity could not. Where would I be without the snails that cleaned up the brown snot after every dinoflagellate cycle? What about when they make neat little trails on the glass that people notice before anything else in the tank? (besides the cleaning magnet that keeps them entertained for hours ).

As for hermit crabs, they're all evil. Even when they're relegated to the sump they find a way to wreck something down there (pump impellers most likely)

[OCDP]

Hermit crabs are useless... I got rid of all of mine because they had done nothing for my tank. They were somewhat entertaining though, I had a scarlet hermit that would go climbing up the tank walls digging into the silicone, then get on top of my cleaning magnet and chill out there for the day.... it was pretty hilarious.

[Delphinus]

Whatever would people mount frags on though without dead snail shells???

Actually .... in all seriousness .... friends don't let friends glue frags to snail shells!! Isn't a snail's death sad enough as it is? We don't need to make it a tragedy as well.

[Canadbis]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Whatever would people mount frags on though without dead snail shells???

Actually .... in all seriousness .... friends don't let friends glue frags to snail shells!! Isn't a snail's death sad enough as it is? We don't need to make it a tragedy as well.

Guess I will pull it off then...
JK
It wouldn't stay anyhow.

[Funky_Fish14]

Too true, hermits just knock things over too... nice SPS being one of them!