Am I going to run into trouble?

[Richison]

I want to add some hermit crabs and snails to my tank to help with my algae issues. My tank is only 4 months old and has completed it's cycle. I know you aren't suppose to add more than 1 or 2 fish at a time, but I want to put all the cleaners in at once. I was thinking 10 hermits and 10 snails to start. Am I going to have an issue by putting them all in at once?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Anonymous]

Dump em in (Well acclimate them first, but yeah--toss em in there).

 

[kparton]

The hermits should reduce your bioload by taking care of some detritus, especially if you have fish and you're feeding.

My suggestion, acclimate for a very long time. I strated doing a 2-3 hour acclimation with my inverts and I've had much greater success than I used to.

If you use the drip method, make sure and float them again at the end of the acclimation to get the temperature back to where it should be. I've had some problem with the temperature in the bag dropping during the drip process.

 

[Anonymous]

> The hermits should reduce your bioload ...

The suggestion is sound, but I disagree with your statement. Hermit and snail *are* bioload, and this is the main concern of the original poster.

I am going to take a more conservative stand on this and say that depends on your tank size, it usually is ok to just toss them in. However, keep in mind that majority of seller over-estimated the ratio of the cleaning crew, but in majority of the cases, there should not be any problem unless your tank is only 10 gal.

 

[Richison]

My tank is 100 Gal with a 30 Gal sump.

I wanted to start small with the cleaners and add if necessary. I didn't get any real help on my post about #'s to add for my size tank so I'm just throwing in some to start. I was just worried about bioload.

 

[Anonymous]

> My tank is 100 Gal with a 30 Gal sump.
With that size, it should be fine.

Keep in mind that the cleaning crew just rearrange the algae and detritus. Without actual export, the nutrient will be recycled, and the algae problem will not go away.

 

[ChrisRD]

I was thinking 10 hermits and 10 snails to start. Am I going to have an issue by putting them all in at once?

No, you won't have a problem. In a tank that size you'll be fine adding that number of hermits/snails. In fact, I'd probably add a few more snails.

HTH

 

[ChrisRD]

I didn't get any real help on my post about #'s to add for my size tank so I'm just throwing in some to start.

If you can be more specific about what species you want to add, we can give you more specific recommendations on the numbers. :wink:

 

[Richison]

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=39454