cleaner crew recommendations

[ebosshard]

220 gallon tank, live rock, fish, moving towards coral (more soft than hard)

Looking for a recommendation for a cleaner crew. What to get, what not to get. A specific suggestion (like what to buy and from whom) would be great.

Tank is three months old and I am fighting brown algae off. Have 8 blue legged hermits in there now but that is all (2 big guys, 6 little guys).

Thanks!

Fish:
3 clowns
1 tang
1 blennie
4 damsels
1 cleaner shrimp

Eric

 

[Len]

Eric,

There's a ton of possible candidates, and usually what I do is I get as wide a mix of species as I can to lessen inter-species competition. All species have a distinct niche in an ecosystem, so employing multiple species will not only help make sure they don't compete as aggressively, but also increase the likelihood that all the problem algaes will have something that eats it.

That said, I prefer snails over crabs. I find snails do a better job at grazing algae. I recommend any combination of Astrea, Turbo, Nerites, Cerith, Trochus, Margarita, and Nassariidae snails.

Black and Tiger Tail cukes do a good job at keeping the sand clean. The only serpent star that I fully trust not to eat sleeping fish or other sessile animals is the red serpent star. True linckias may be good scavengers, but they aren't as hardy and not recommended for newer tanks.

I've found that jeff's exotic fish (www.exoticfish.com) usually has a good selection of clean-up critters. I'm sure there are many many others though.

 

[Anonymous]

I would go with the mix len suggested, but not to the quantity that is often recommended buy online vendors. I keep my 110 clean with 7 turbos, 2 cerths, 3 nassaries and 2 hermit crabs. If I try to add more I get deaths IMO due to starvation.