Let's talk about cleaning crews

[midgetwaiter]

The changes I've made in my system the past few months have drastically lowered my need for hermits and the like. I have to actively feed the little buggers I still have in there. Even with a frogfish living in the fuge and dumping god knows how much protein based waste into the water from his feeders.

Things like improving flow patterns, a good skimmer setup wet and using stuff like macro algae and zoanthids to suck nutrients out of the water seem to make the difference. In comparison my other nano reef with the sand bed and the bio filter still has a bit of algae going. It reminds me more of my puffer tank where nitrate and phosphate are always a problem due to the food they eat.

As much as I used to argue that Albert was advocating an unnecessarily stringent BB / Berlin style I've found it really works. I even had an appropriate sized magnet cleaner ordered into work for me but I'm finding that I just don't need the thing now.