Cleaning Crew for 25 Gallons

[drm180]

Can anyone recommend a cleaning crew for a 25 gallon reef. I have an idea but I'm not sure. I know that I want some nassarius snails to stir up my sand, some peppermint shrimp to see if they will eat my aiptasia, and maybe some type of hermit crab. I'm not sure how many and if I need anything else.

 

[reeffreak]

I would go with 10-15 small nassarius,3 peppemints and if you must have crabs then try maybe 20 of the very tiny dwarf blue legged hermits.

I like a mix of snails too,maybe 10-20 of the diatom grazers-astreas,ceriths,trochus or a mix of the three.

 

[drm180]

Okay. Can all of those snails get backk upright if they get turned over? I'm not sure if I should get crabs or not. Are the blue legged hemits completely reef safe?

 

[Cathic]

Blue legs are considered the safest, the snails will plow through the sand and should not be bothered about flipping, I keep a sand sifting star and 3 peppermints and 2 camels for shrimp in my 26, just a couple of astreas, if you are looking for some fish to help try an engineering goby he will plow through your sand.

 

[drm180]

I think I'm going to go with 10 nassarius snails, 10 cerith snails, 5-10 blue legged hermits and 3 peppermint shrimp. I'm going to get a watchman goby and a pistol shrimp pair later so I don't think I'm going to get a sand sifting star. Does that sound like it will work?

 

[reeffreak]

Okay. Can all of those snails get backk upright if they get turned over? Are the blue legged hemits completely reef safe?

Nope and nope.

You can buy the teeny tiny blue legged but they still get big enough to kill a snail for its shell.Your list sounds good to me.

 

[Cathic]

Watchman goby and pistol shrimp pair will not move all over continuously they will eventually find a home and stay there.

 

[sen5241b]

In my tank anyway -Its very rare to see a hermit kill a snail and I have big red legged ones. The hermits do dig up the sand a lot and release detritus.

 

[rwynn]

My hermits have killed close to 15 snails now(without even touching the shells left behind)...I have given up snails until I get the chance to get rid of my hermits.