clean up crew preferences

I don't remember having a thread for sharing our clean up crew preferences. What's a reef forum without a clean up crew thread? LOL

What do you all prefer? How many do you keep? What do you feel does best on HA? Algae in general? Film on the glass? Sandbed? Detritus? Let's discuss anything CUC related.

Personally, I'm a no hermits kinda gal.

Here's what I normally keep:

• 15 or so trochus - prefer these over astreas
  cerith - a few to a handful
  nerite - a few to a handful
  I have a few singles of other types too for the variety of appetite
  fighting conch (and right now I have a queen conch too that I got from the LFS as a FC...will keep till I have problems with it I guess)
  2 emerald crabs
  2 peppermint shrimp - just added recently for my occasional aptasia but I don't think they're helping me out
  nass snails - about 15 or so reg and 2 - 5 tonga (nass snails are still my fav, I think)

all in my 75 mixed reef with 2" or so sandbed that's blown down to nothing in the middle and more like 3 inches or so on the sides.

Oh...and I just put a turbo snail in my sump because we're starting to grow HA and ickier types of algae in it and boy does it mow! Hopefully, we keep growing enough to feed this guy. If not, I'll have to see if someone wants to share him with me.

Considering trying a sand sifting cuc again. I still need to work on detritus control.

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I'm a snail only person now. No hermits for me!

I do need more snails. I currently only have 20. Thinking of getting a crowie, but-they're a bit big for my needs.

yep turbos mow down the HA.. My 46 was covered in HA about 2-3 weeks ago...added 2 now I have hardly any left. also like nass and nerites.. no hermits here either.

Why does everybody hate hermits? I don't know how much good they do, but I think they are fun to watch run around. Every time I've added emerald crabs I've never seen them again! Now shrimp I'm not a huge fan of, other than sexies or coral bandeds. I should add a little shrimp to my nano. Been thinking about peps for the aiptasia eating.

I would go with 4 mexican turboes, 2-4 sand sifting starfish and some shrimps. Also go with the small astrea snails like 40.

Hermits seek and destroy snails. They rip apart/shred corals, irritate fish. And all that for something cute?


I prefer keeping my CuC intact, minus crabs. I won't even get an emerald. Maybe someday if I get acros, acro crabs. Or an anemone/anemone crab combo.

I have like 10 snails in my tank, i really need to order a cuc.

I used to have hermits and I got so mad at them I banished them to the sump! Fortunately when my tank crashed they died too!

I loved hermit in my tank when I had it , also like cerith,pep shrimp, nass, sandsifting star,serpent star,nerite, emerald crab, I did not have a set number just whatever I was feeling at the time.

I did not have any luck with anything eating HA in my tank. so I started to does vodka and that took care of it.

I think most people over do clean up crews, then the snails start dying off due to starvation, the hermits are cleaning those up plus attacking them when there is no food. I have had the same hermits and snails for years in my nanos because I only get one or two of each. Whenever I've bought big CUC, six months down the line they are mostly gone. I used to have that giant hermit and other than knocking stuff around with his shell, he didn't harm anything, including small fish. Now my arrow crab, that thing was awesome but had a taste for scarlet hermits. Not good for cleaning anything but cool looking.

I think hermits are just opportunistic. I don't trust 'em.

As for sandsifting stars, I was reading up on them recently and they eat all the "good" stuff in the sandbed too. I tried one a long time ago and I think it slowly died of starvation. I won't be getting on again. Bummer too cuz they're cool.

I use about 30 Micro hermits once they get to big I just bag them up trade them to the Fish stores. but I have about 10 Trochus snails, about 30 Nassarius snails,8,9 tonga nassarius, 2 fighting conch, 20 or so Nerites, 5 or 6 cerith,2 or 3 peppermints, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp,to many to count mini brittle starfish.

I have about 30 hermits, 30 nerites, 4 mexican turbos (I want those that actually eat the hair algae please), 2 breeding pairs of nass snails and numerous babies, 20 cerith, 5 trochus

Sand sifting starfish are not a good addition to a CUC because they will die due to starvation after time. They are not an efficient method of cleaning but yes they do look cool.