Today on BRSTV we are going to clean up this tank
Hey guys my name is Ryan, welcome to another week of the BRS 160 where every week we do
our best to help you guys, members of the reefing community enjoy your tanks and find
new ways to explore the hobby. We do that by following the set up and progression of
this one hundred and sixty gallon reef tank.
Today we are going to add some new livestock to the tank with the primary focus being on
clean-up crews. We are going to share some information on the purpose of a clean-up crew,
different approaches to this, details on some popular livestock choices and a few tips you
probably haven't considered before.
Before we get too far we need share some disappointing news. The fire fish we added in a previous
week didn't make it. It is always difficult to know why some fish just do well, doubly
so in a situation like this with a large well cycled tank that has constant ammonia monitoring,
no aggressive tank mates and obvious signs of illness or parasites on the fish themselves.
End of the day we couldn't identify anything wrong with the system , we did a one hundred
percent water change to provide us a bit of peace of mind and added fang and sir chops
a lot to the tank. Some of you may remember fang and sir chomps a lot from the how to
set up a saltwater tank series we did back in two thousand eleven. They have since received
well deserved names from their desire to bite any hand that enters their domain.
These little guys have been with us a long time and made the rounds here with a handful
of different tanks here at BRS. Their current owner just moved to Florida so it just seemed
like it was meant to be that they become the star of the show in the BRS160 as well. I
think all of us, the brs team, brs community, fang and sir chomps allot have come a long
way since 2011 and I’m pretty excited to see them in here even though I know it means
I am going to get bit quiet frequently.
So on to today’s topic with clean-up crews. What exactly is a clean-up crew’s purpose
in the tank? The name suggests and common perception is adding livestock which is going
to help keep your tank clean by eating algae, detritus or other unwanted pests.
Reefers also simply like adding diversity to the tank with crabs, stars, shrimp and
snails however these two contradictory desires are really at odds with each other in ways
most reefers don’t fully understand.
I think it is really important to point out the break in the road here between attempting
to maintaining a healthy population snails, crabs and other cleaners in the reef tank
that have a side benefit of keeping algae and other pests in check and attempting to
use them as for the sole purpose of algae control because the clean-up crew methodology
is commonly seriously misunderstood and more often than not results in the exact opposite
results the reefer intended in both of these cases.
We are going to look at this from two vantage points starting with how to introduce, build
and maintain a clean-up crew in a brand new tank as well as from the vantage point of
using them to help contain and reduce an existing outbreak.
Let start with a newer tank’s clean-up crew. In this case most reefers would add snails,
crabs and other livestock because they want to maintain these cool little critters long
term as well as keep algae and other pests at bay. Here is the thing it is all too common
for companies or even other reefers to promote tank cleaner packages which have a strong
potential to have the exact opposite effect of killing the creatures you are taking care
of as well as polluting the water and promoting nuisance algae growth.
This is primarily because clean-up crew packages common to our industry often state that you
need two to three hundred crabs and a hundred plus snails for a tank like the BRS one sixty.
While a lot of reefers including myself have followed that advice at one point or another
many reefers have learned from that experience and wouldn't do it again because the survivability
of that many new tank inhabitants is not very high.
In this case if we added upwards of four hundred hungry little mouths to the tank and maintained
the only source of food which currently is just half a cube a day of frozen Mysis we
feed the fish. You don't have to be a marine biologist to understand that a brand new tank
and a small amount of food like this is not going to be enough to support that type of
population. Especially those that are highly dependent on fresh algae growth.
The few pieces of Mysis the fish don’t eat will likely be scavenged by lucky members
of the clean-up crew, the pieces that are not found as well as the biological waste
from the fish and other creatures that eat the food will breakdown into nutrients like
nitrogen and phosphate critical for plant or algae growth. The new algae growth will
go on to feed some portion of the four hundred critters you just added but most are going
to starve in this environment.
So here is the conundrum. This half a cube of food, including everything it breaks down
into and resulting additional food sources is not even close to enough nutrients for
these four hundred little critters. So to help make sure these guys stay healthy you
are either going to have to start adding more food and or reduce water changes to let the
nutrient levels rise and support more algae growth as a food source which is absolutely
counter initiative to trying maintain a low nutrient tank and fend off algae.
So what happens if you don’t feed them appropriately and just let them fend for themselves? Well
then the four hundred little mouths that are supposed to be preventing the spread of algae
in your tank start to become nutrient source for the algae growth they are supposed to
be preventing. If the snails and crabs are unable to locate food in the tank they are
going to start eating each other, particularly the crabs going after the snails, as well
as consuming fat and protein stores within their own bodies to survive.
Consuming themselves or each other produces unwelcome nutrients as waste very similar
to if they were consuming actual food. If you don't plan on keeping them alive , More
or less each one of them are little nutrient batteries for the tank, as they slowly starve
to death they add nutrients from eating themselves or each other to the tank. Eventually many
die of starvation at which point basically all of the nutrients this organism has ever
has consumed and stored in its tissue is broken down and released into the tank feeding more
algae growth.
There are some additional lesser known elements here. Many of these critters simply do very
poorly in the aquarium. Margarita snails almost always have very short lived lives because
they come from cooler waters and don’t do well in warm aquariums.
Popular turbo snails can also have a fairly short life span in the aquarium if they are
collected from subtropical locations like the shores of California, there are Mexican
variations of turbo snails that do much better but it’s difficult for the average hobbyist
to know where they come from.
There are all kinds of star fish, crabs, snails, cucumbers, shrimp, urchins and other critters
that just don’t do well in the aquarium, even more so when there is heavy competition
for their only food source or they are under attack from other hungry tank mates. When
they die they will result in increased nutrients in the tank and promote algae growth.
It is pretty hard to count every crab and snail but I would say a vast majority of reefers
who add hundreds of these little critters when they start a brand new tank in hopes
of preventing algae growth end up with a small fraction of them alive in a years’ time
and a lot of unwanted nutrients and potentially algae issues.
Even if you are ok with that, consider your clean-up crew disposable elements in the tank
and buy refill or replenisher packs to replace the dead ones you absolutely should consider
how many nutrients all these corpses are adding to the tank and how that might really be the
cause of many of your issues in the first place and not the solution.
End of story everyone has their own opinion on this type of thing and how many snails
and crabs you need that is based on our individual experiences but I will say the advice that
you need one to two hermits and one snail per gallon of reef tank is not based on keeping
these things alive or maintaining a low nutrient tank that naturally prevents algae growth
to begin with.
the fact that most of huge packages like this also sell replenisher packs right next to
them tend to indicate that that everyone understands that most tanks are not going to support this
many mouths naturally or the livestock included in the kit has a very high mortality rate.
Net result is while these months might scavenge a lot of algae and keep the tank clean but
it isn’t a good method of reducing nutrients added to the tank which is the larger cause
of the issue or real fit a mindset that everything in the tank is really a pet and member of
the household. Fact is livestock is going to die on occasion but a lot of them were
going to die in the wild as well so we don't need to overwhelm ourselves with guilt but
we should try and treat the animals well and at least attempt to keep them alive. Regardless
of your position on that if you treat the tank with respect you will likely be a more
successful reefer in general.
So if one snail per gallon is too many for a tank, particularly a brand new tank with
no algae and very little nutrients, what number should we shoot for? Well keeping in mind
that these guys are not supposed to be the primary component of algae control. They are
really supposed to function as secondary component to an overall plan to prevent algae which
has to include proper feeding, husbandry, solid maintenance like water changes and skimmer
upkeep.
If the only barrier preventing you from having a major algae outbreak is you have an immense
amount of mouths just barely eating algae faster than your tank can produce it I can
guarantee you are going to run into some pretty major issues sooner or later.
So with that said we are going to make a recommendation that is much closer to one snail per ten gallons
of water. Keep in mind that if you have a robust system that gets fed a ton your tank
might support more but the concept should be to match the amount of snails to the amount
of available food.
I also don't think a simple rule like that covers the entire picture. We need to think
about habitat and type of food source as well. For instance trochus snails spend a lot of
time on the glass or rock surface which makes that their primary habitat and algae, diatoms
and cyano their primary food source. Nassarius snails spend most of their time stirring things
up under the sand eating detritus, waste and uneaten foods. Cerith snails can be found
all over the tank but most often on top of the sand or substrate eating cyano, diatoms
and algae. So I would try and get a mix of different snails that spend their time in
different areas of the tank.
So the big question is so the one snail per ten gallons means total snails or specific
to each type of snail. Well keep in mind that these are basically rules of thumb so a really
established tank that gets fed a lot could likely sustain sixteen of each type of snail
in this one hundred and sixty gallon tank. However with a brand new tank like this I
am probably going to start with a third to half of that and increase the volume as I
increase the food source.
So what about small hermit crabs like the blue leg? I think it is a judgment call here
but I’d likely shoot for the same volume of with one per ten gallons. The thing about
hermits is while they do go after certain types of algae , cyano and various waste in
the tank when that food supply is scarce they are very likely to kill other tank mates like
snails or in rare cases even go after certain types of corals. As they grow they will also
absolutely kill snails for their shells.
If you want to keep hundreds of hermits in the tank you have to replace the snails frequently
and likely increase the feeding substantially to maintain a proper food source for that
volume of tank inhabitants. In more cases than not the few hundred you add will dwindle
to a more stable number, probably closer to that one or two per ten gallons.
Outside of that there are a ton of little critters like various stars, shrimp, other
crab types, sea slugs, urchins and cucumbers which can all help keep the tank clean as
well. For the most part I’d say they are all optional and id add them to the tank more
because you are interested in keeping it in the tank rather than what it can do for the
tank.
Couple notables, urchins in particular can be really effective at removing stubborn algae
patches however they tend to drag a lot of corals around and the spines are super painful
if you ever get stuck by one.
Emerald crabs are a great idea because almost all of you are doomed to encounter bubble
algae at some point in your reefing career. Emerald crabs can often keep this issue at
bay and you may never even know you have bubble algae. Like other crabs if they don't get
enough to eat they will likely go after other livestock.
Same thing can be said of peppermint shrimp, some species will eat aptasia and a good idea
to have in the tank prior to the problem rather than after. They may just completely prevent
an issue no one wants to deal with. However if there isn't enough food they will also
go after tank mates and in some cases corals.
Lastly all kinds of fish should be considered part of your clean-up crew as well. Tangs,
rabbit fish, dwarf angles, and bennies are aggressive algae eaters. I have seen many
cases where a single tang is effectively hiding a nutrient issue in a tank because they are
so aggressive about finding and eating all of the algae in the tank... I personally think
fish like tanks are likely the most effective member of the clean-up crew. Be aware that
all of these options have the potential to nip at or even eat corals if you let them
go hungry long enough and once they have a taste for corals it’s over.
Sand sifting gobies are one of the coolest ways to keep your sand turned over, clean
and free of cyano or detritus. I will say they do not do well in newer tanks, and by
don’t do well I mean will probably waste away and die if there isn't an established
microfauna population in the sand or a significant amount of food or waste is not present in
the sand. For instance we have a thriving diamond back goby in the clown harem tank
but that tank had been up for a year before we added him, there is a ridiculous amount
of food added to the tank every day, and thirty fishes worth of waste settling out in the
sand.
One last piece of this I want to add in as a component of your clean-up crew is a healthy
microfauna population like copepods and amphipods will process waste throughout the tank and
many reefers theorize consume algae before it has a chance to take hold or spread. I
can’t confirm this claim but I do see it as one of the many advantages associated with
maintaining a thriving refugium designed to increase micro fauna populations.
Ok time to move on to the second vantage point associated with using a clean-up crew to help
with an established algae outbreak. You can absolutely use crabs, snails, fish and sea
slugs help with your problem but only if you acknowledge that this isn't a cure and the
reason you are having this problem is because you are likely feeding too much food, not
exporting enough waste with water changes or skimmer or you are over lighting the tank
with intensity or the wrong spectrum. These are the real causes on most cases. The clean-up
crew is just treating a symptom of the real issue.
That means once the critters eat all of the algae or available food source in the tank
you need to remove them before they die and release all those nutrients back into the
tank. That means give them to a friend, try and get some credit from a local fish store
or even just give them back to the store for free when you are done with them. As unattractive
as giving them away for free sounds it’s better than letting them die, producing nutrients
and feeding an algae growth issue you just solved.
My best advice for anyone trying to fight an active algae outbreak like this is physically
remove as much as possible by hand to get the organic matter and nutrients out of the
tank permanently. Killing algae or letting it get eaten may help with the visible issue
but the nutrients are still in the tank.
After removing as much as possible by hand we suggest a string of five or six large thirty
percent water changes a couple days apart which basically removes one hundred percent
of the water and then take a long hard look at your feeding, lighting and maintenance
habits.
If that doesn’t work try some nutrient removal medias like GFO, a large but temporary clean-up
crew or try something new like a more permeant approach to maintaining a ultra-low nutrient
system like Zeovit which almost never has major nutrient or algae issues.
So what did we do with the BRS160? based on the what described above we added a few hermits
to each rock pile, six or seven cerith snails, about the same nassarius snails, and around
ten astrea snails split up between the glass various rock piles.
I will say if they had been available I would have picked up trochus snails rather than
the astreas because the BRS team here has had more success with them. This photo is
a demonstration Chad produced of how trochus snails perform verses the popular turbo species
of snails from Mexico.
Trochus also can flip themselves over fairly easy and we have seen them successfully reproduce
themselves in an aquarium environment which makes them cooler as well. Soon as I see trochus
available at my supplier I will probably swap out the astreas with trochus and give the
astreas away.
We also added a single emerald crab to each rock structure. Not only will they keep the
bubble algae away Chad also maintains a tank with emeralds he uses to clean frags up and
those photo is an example of what they do to the frags overnight which is pretty amazing.
We also added some peppermint shrimp as a general scavenger as well as to keep aptasia
at bay. While we were at it we added some fun elements with a couple pom-pom crabs,
some blotchy anthias and a Randal’s goby with his friend the candy pistol shrimp.
Tank is really starting to come together. I hope you were able to pick up something
valuable related clean-up crews today. If that’s the case give us quick thumbs up
and subscribe so you don’t miss out on next week’s episode. Week twenty four chemical
filtration.