Would this be to many? I have read things all over the map. Some sites say to do 2 per gallon, some say way less then that.

Will they hurt my live sand and make it no good?

What are your thoughts?

I can get a great deal if I order a certain amount, and just want to see if there would be any damage to my tank by putting that many in..

way to many

they are scavengers, so there usefulness will be measured by the tank's bioload. That many snails would need like 10 medium to large fish to clean up after.

where are you getting your info from

Many forums say to do 2 per gallon...

Nass snails are not algae grazers- you want ceriths or margaritas. A couple of nass snails is fun but they won't do much for CUC. They pop up out of the sand at feeding time and hunt for leftovers.

I would say maybe do 20-25 snails tops.

and how many of those? Could you put a mix of 50 or so different snails in a 35 gallon

also I have a pretty deep sandband, and want to keep it nice and fresh..

what else is good to keep sand nice and fresh?

Nass are sand sifters. wont see them to often except at night. and again they are scavengers. way to many. i have 2 in a 10g.
and dont always go by the gallon rule.

what about trochus snails? I have heard they are MUCH better then astrea snails..

thoughts?

i have less than 10 in my 81g

for your tank, 3-5 should be sufficient

cheers

You could, feasibly, put 50 snails in a 35 gallon. IMO, it would look unsightly to have all those snails all over your tank walls, plus that many would start knocking things over. I'd do maybe 15 margaritas, 15 ceriths (these will get down in your sandbed a bit), a couple of turbos, and a couple of nassarius.

I would not recommend too deep of a sandbed, an inch or inch and a half is good.

John owns Reefcleaners and he can make some good recommendations for you too. He was just trying to tell you that 50 nass would not be a good choice.

Sure, i understand. I have about a 4 inch sandbed..to late to make it "less.."

Also what about Trochus snails? I have heard great things about them.

Also, with alot of snails you can get by with no small hermits at all, right?

do they as good a job of keeping things cleaned up?

i have a few trochus. there alrite. Seems like most my CUC joined the union and are on strike. I think its time for me to do a upgrade...hah

I'm about to make an order from reefs2go.com

I have a 35 gallon and a 25 gallon. The 35 has MUCH more corals and live rock in it. The 25 is sort of going to be a tank I keep live rock and mushrooms in it.

I'm looking at ordering a mix of snails, what would you guys suggest for my 2 tanks
Astrea
Trochus
cerith
margarita
nassarius
nerite


Do they all do different tasks?

what do I want to have the most of? Is there a good general purpose snail?

i have a kept a few. as meat eaters there wont be naturally occurring food for them in your tank, only what you input. you dont want to input that much food. how many fish do you have? how often do you feed?

dont go about it as "which snail is best", look for what mixture of inhabitants is best for your setup.

I have 2 clowns

and I"m getting a 6 line wrase, firefish, goby, and dottaback... so five fish

and LOTS of corals.. I tend to feed VERY light

I have two NAS, 3 Cerith and 6 asteria snails in my tank. Plus 5 hermits. I think this is sufficient for my 28G. I will most likely get one more cerith and two more nas snails soon.

that is a good mix, but the margaritas are a temperate snail so you may want to skip them. Mix and match what they do to the nuisances you have and the quantity of environment they live in. (If you have all sand and little rocks more ceriths who like sand and less astreas that like rocks and glass etc...), and you should get to the right number. If you do per gallon rules on each species it wont take into account diet and environment issues, and that is the really the only difference between species.

I read that becuase the Astera die to quickly it'd be best to do about 5 of these in my 35, abou 7 cerith, 15 nerite, 5 Nassarious...how does this sound? Sounds like the Nerite snails are the ones people like to have lots of..

also when you are buying Nassarious snails is it worth it to buy the tonga ones, or just go with the regular?

3-4 for now with very light feeding. if you stay that light 10 total after the 5 fish would be on the strong side, considering your feeding schedule. If you have other CUC scavengers, (bristle worms are often overlooked), you can do with less. Speaking of microfauna CUCs...is lakshwa off today?

really? only ten? ok.

Do they do a great job of getting that layer of "dust" off of your sand, and keeping your sand nice and white, or do the combo of different things do that?

no they wont, for diatoms you will want ceriths and nerites

how many nerites would you suggest?

how much rock covers the sand as a percentage?

+1
my hermit crab now lives in the margarita shell. they are colder water snails and dont live to long.

hmmm. not sure. if you look on the site I have my 35 gallon tank build on here. you can see what I got..

I have quite a bit of live rock..

okay if i bump into it i will check it out

I don't really like my nassarius. They leave kinda nasty trails, and I'm not convinced they do a very good job. I much prefer my conch and wish I had gotten two instead of 1 and the 7 snails. I have been pulling them out as I can find them.