# Am i ready for a fully cleanup crew now?



## Heymybigfish (Jul 30, 2007)

well....its been a month and my tank lvls seem to be great...0am, 0ni, 5 or less na....

i was assuming, since everything is great, other than my algae lvl, lol, i could start stocking in the cleanup crew.....like 20 snails and like a starfish and some crabs or something....

any advice? i think its time....


also, should i do a water change? its the same water since the day i put the tank together in july.


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

yes, do a water change, wait one week, and you should be fine to add some buddies. dont go crazy with the clean up crew, most sites recomend WAY to many animals to clean any given size tank, ive kept a 120 spotless with a good skimmer, 10 hermits, maybe 10 snails, and a sand sifter star. so the sites that reccomend 50 snails for a 33 gallon tank are just nuts imo.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

.5 critters per gallon is kind of a good guideline

My top choices are:
Turbo Snails
Nassariaus Snails
Cerith Snails
Brown Brittle Stars


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## Heymybigfish (Jul 30, 2007)

kool....i just bought the stuff from SWF. my total stuff for my 55 gallon will include

10 nassarius
10 cerith
orange linckia star
3 blk turbo
2 mexi grazer
4 red hermits
10 blue hermits


that sound good?


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

you need to wait a few months before you try to put a linkia in there, stars are very very very fragile creatures, and your tank is going to be going through alot in the up comming months, cycles of saltwater last longer than just the nitrogen cycle, there are many other things that need to balance and stabilize. if its possible, dont get the linkia yet. (wait about 6 months)


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## CollegeReefer (Sep 1, 2006)

I echo what leveldrummer said, no to the linkia. I would drop the red and blue dwarf hermit crabs and go with scarlet reef hermit crabs. The blues and reds like to kill snails for shell. Also you might want to check out etropicals.com. They have a build your own cuc. Just pick out 60 dollars worth and they will send it for free.


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

It's amazing when one goes and buys a boatload of cleanup crew without researching the hermits and starfish first. I, too will echo leveldrummer advice to skip on the linkia star.


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