robertmun Posted March 23, 2003 Share Posted March 23, 2003 Just finished cycling my 20g with lr and ls. Did 50% change and now I'm supposed to stock clean up crew (right?) I've read about which 'crew' I am supposed to stock, but how do I know if I have enough "food" for the crew to eat? Should I drop in bits of something just in case? If so, what can I add and how much so that my crew wont die off, and I wont kill the tank... Robert Link to comment
LiQuiD Posted March 23, 2003 Share Posted March 23, 2003 I would only start with snails to take care of the algae dustings on glass, rock and sand that you are going to start with. Unless you have established LR and or have a fish whish you will be feeding food, I would hold off on any crabs or shrimp unless you wish to manually feed the crew. It's like this, you feed your fish and the food it does not eat begins to feed some of that bad algae we all hate which helps the algae to grow. The clean up crew is then used to take care of the detritus (fish poop), uneaten fish food, or the algae that is growing due to the decomposing food in the water. If you do not have uneaten food, detritus, and algae growing in your tank now for the crew to eat, do not bother getting crabs or shrimp. A snail or 2 can help with your glass in the begining but be careful with going overboard because you will just end up starving your critters or if you have to feed them, you could end up starting the problem that the crews are needed to help fix and keep at bay. Remember, clean up crews don't really "clean", they EAT the unwanted things in your tank. Picture not wanting a hamburger and putting it in a large room, then add 10 sumo wrestlers to the room. They would have the hamburger gone in a minute and would then eventually starve and die. Only add what you need. If your tank is pristine, just add one snail. If your tank has 6 inch hair algae growing all over the rocks, throw in hermits, shrimp, nudibranch etc. and so on yo deal with the problem at hand. Link to comment
robertmun Posted March 23, 2003 Author Share Posted March 23, 2003 thanks. I do have one large turbo snail and he seems to do fine. However, he craps like a racehorse and the sandbed is a mess. Would hermits help here? Link to comment
SeaMountain Posted March 23, 2003 Share Posted March 23, 2003 10 Sumo wrestlers and ONE hamburger? ??? "Loan me some money for a hamburger? I'll gladly repay you Tuesday.", said Wimpy. Link to comment
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