In your opinion, which CUC member does its job best?

[Homey D. Clownfish]

I think reefcleaners.org has a cleanup crew package with a variety of snails that do a pretty good job.

 

[Mechano]

Turbos, money Cowries, Trochus snails, and #1 is Tangs/foxfaces

 

[djf91]

I have no luck so far with cuc. I feel they are mostly making things worse. I have an 8 month old tank, fish are healthy (including a useless foxface), corals (lps/sps) growing great, LOTS of hair algae. Cannot keep a snail to save myself (ati tests no copper or other troubling elements and the hermits are just fine). I lost two fighting conchs, most of my nassarius, astreas, ceriths, and the newer mexican turbos are on their way out. Maybe its the hermits (blue legs, but I am not 100% sure), as they seem to be the only survivors.

I have a lot of hair algae that I am thinking it is mostly fueled by dead snails. No more snails…..or maybe I need to send all hermits to the sump….

Suggestions are most welcome!!!

Yea I had this happen in my system too. I think it has to do with the proper bacterial communities getting established, ammonia/nitrite toxicity. I also think certain hair algae species might be toxic to snails. In a tank covered in hair algae, the best thing you can do is to scrub it yourself with a tooth brush until coralline starts to establish and outcompete it for space.

 

[Desert Dog]

Sea hare has worked wonders for me

 

[Sdot]

My favorite are the pods.... IMO they are the real MVP's. Can't really see them but do they do a heck of a job.

 

[Sophie"s mom]

With their being a lot of different members of cuc to choose from we all have our personal favorites. I am wondering which clean up crew member do you think does it's job best? Curious to see what everyone thinks!

I really like my nassarius snails and my pitho crabs!

 

[Jasonak]

Snails but I enjoy hermits more

 

[JHSteepat]

Yea I had this happen in my system too. I think it has to do with the proper bacterial communities getting established, ammonia/nitrite toxicity. I also think certain hair algae species might be toxic to snails. In a tank covered in hair algae, the best thing you can do is to scrub it yourself with a tooth brush until coralline starts to establish and outcompete it for space.

Probably all of the above, though I am not sure about the ammonia/nitrite as the system is well cycled, but maybe it was due to a large die-off of snails. I have a turf scrubber getting established which should control this better. I think its just pulling phosphate from the rocks and sand.

In any case, I don’t want to hijack this thread, so my take-home is that adding a large CuC might be considered the same as adding too many fish. Snails are not easily acclimated and ordering a hundred or two online may add additional stressors that counter the purpose of a cuc. You can expect die-off, so moderation is the key.

All I can think of is that if you are adding a large cuc, especially from mail-order (reefcleaners, etc), maybe acclimate them for a few weeks in a cycled QT tank and remove any die-odd immseiately.

I still believe rogue hermits helped in the die-off of the snails.

 

[blazn]

I still believe rogue hermits helped in the die-off of the snails.

That certainly wouldn't surprise me. Hermits are really cool critters in a tank, but I got to the point that I don't keep them anymore (other than one that lives in my refugium, as he took out my last hermit crew) as they are just natural born killers!

 

[Bob Weigant]

Turbo snails for me. They plow threw everything. Biggest downfall is you'll need to make sure your corals are glued in place. Other than that they love the algae in my tank

 

[JNalley]

I have no luck so far with cuc. I feel they are mostly making things worse. I have an 8 month old tank, fish are healthy (including a useless foxface), corals (lps/sps) growing great, LOTS of hair algae. Cannot keep a snail to save myself (ati tests no copper or other troubling elements and the hermits are just fine). I lost two fighting conchs, most of my nassarius, astreas, ceriths, and the newer mexican turbos are on their way out. Maybe its the hermits (blue legs, but I am not 100% sure), as they seem to be the only survivors.

I have a lot of hair algae that I am thinking it is mostly fueled by dead snails. No more snails…..or maybe I need to send all hermits to the sump….

Suggestions are most welcome!!!

Hermits will generally only attack snails when they're starved, or when they have no more shells to swap into. Buy some hermit shells on amazon or from one of the many CUC sellers on the internet... Feed meaty foods like shredded raw clams to the hermits and Nassarius snails if you have any left.

**If you go the amazon route for shells , just soak them in citric acid for a day, rinse them off in the sink, and then toss them in the tank.

GHA can be tackled a few ways:

Fish:
Lawnmower Blenny
Hector's Goby
Court Jester/Rainford's Goby

Snails:
Crowned Turbo Snail
Indo Turbo Snail
Zebra Turbo Snail

Crabs:
Pitho Crab

Other:
Urchins (These will generally also eat coralline algae though)


I generally avoid anything that says "Mexican" or "Margherita" because they are sometimes harvested from the pacific side of Mexico, and those are colder waters than we keep our reef tanks typically (Due to the current bringing cold water down from Alaska), so they die relatively quickly in our tanks (Months, maybe a year in some cases). Get CUC that originates either from Africa, or the Indo-Pacific due to the water temps of those regions.

I hope this helps.


Edit: Also, a lot of people mistake Dino's for Hair Algae because some species of Dino's grow as long stringy hairs, and Dino's are toxic to most inverts that try to eat them. So make sure you truly have hair algae and not Dino's before you spend more money.