Planning cleanup crew for my 20 gallon

[eschaton]

I'm a saltwater newbie who's 20 gallon is currently cycling. I lucked out with my LR and got a number of good scavengers, including mini-brittlestars, bristleworms, and a few Stomatella. I've been planning out the rest of my CUC, and these are my ideas.

 

Snails:

 

Trochus (or possibly tectus)

Nerites

Ceriths

Money Cowrie

Nassarius

Bubble shells if I can find them

 

Crustaceans:

 

Porcelain Crabs

Sexy Shrimp

 

There's a number of other things I'm interested in including, including Chitons, the Yellow Cucumber, a few small hermits, the Emerald Mithrax, Peppermint Shrimp, Cleaner Shrimp, etc...but I've researched and they all seem like bad choices. I purposely didn't include Turbo (don't want rockwork bulldozed) and Astrea (don't want to have to right fallen snails forever).

 

So, any feedback?

[noob1]

I started w/ a 20L and asked the same question, Neanderthalman gave me the following advice which I found to be sound:

 

The best way to think about your cleanup crew is to define different jobs in your tank.

 

I look at

 

Film Algae

 

Detritivores

 

Sand Sifters

 

as the three areas that you need to cover. For film algae, there are a number of snails that do a great job. Most snails are good for film algae, most notably Astrea, Turbo, and I beleive also Stomatella, Trochus, Conch, and Nerite snails are all film algae eaters. I'd go with 3 or 4 snails of this type.

 

For detrivores, I honestly don't think you can beat blue leg hermits. Some people complain about hermits, but I love 'em. I find they do a great job of picking algae and detritus off of rocks, and don't bother my corals or kill my snails. I'd go with maybe 4 of them, or two blue legs and one larger crab like a scarlet hermit.

 

Sand sifters, Nassarius snails are hands down the best. They don't eat the algae that grows on the sand, but they constantly stir the surface, preventing it from growing. They'll eat meaty detritus, including food that makes it to the bottom. I'd get a few, maybe 4-6.

 

That's how I do a cleanup crew.

 

Couple other points from my experience is that Peppermint shrimp are fine, Astreas are good, I've had mine for almost a year now and they seem to be thriving. I concur with the blue-legged hermits, hardy, hard-working, they don't mess with my corals.

 

Have fun.

 

 

Oh yeah, careful with the emerald crab, they grow big and have a sketchy rep.

[eschaton]

Thanks for the advice. Just one note on why I'm leaning towards no hermits (or one or two at the most). While I'm doing a "reef tank," I'm far from only interested in Corals. I'm hoping my live rock retains a wide assortment of animal life. I've read hermits will decimate populations of dwarf featherdusters and bristleworms, and it leaves me feeling edgy.

[noob1]

One of the most frustrating (and enthralling) thing about this hobby for me is the amount of contradictory information out there. Not due to ignorance IMO/IME but becuase every system is different. There are so many variables that can differ from tank to tank creating well nigh an infinite number of permutations. IME, hermits won't hassle the micro feather dusters. FWIW