Reef Cleaner Packages

[cmsurfr22]

Ok so this is where i'm at.....

April 9, 2006 i added 150 lbs of rock
three weeks later the nitrite was .05 and nitrate was 25-50
May 1, 2006 i added 240 lbs of sand
May 6, 2006 i added another 100 lbs of rock
May 16, 2006 i performed around a 15% water change
Today (May 17, 2006) the water is clear and brown algae is starting to grow all over my rock and walls nitrite is .05 and nitrate is around 25

i'm not to clear on what my next step is but i know it involves a cleaner package....

this is what i'm thinking of getting from http://www.keyscritters.com the following:

50 Blue Leg Hermits
50 Turbo/Astrea Snails
100 Cerith Snails
12 Scarlets

oppinions/suggestions welcome, this is my first tank and i want to make sure i do it right

thanks,
chris

 

[Phyl]

You may want to look to Reeftopia. The prices are pretty similar and they don't charge for shipping over 120'ish. They have some decent packages. I've bought from them a few times now.

Also, FWIW, if you can wait any we're going to be doing an invert buy as the club's next group buy. We usually get pretty good pricing for those.

 

[cmsurfr22]

i just priced it out and reeftopia is actually cheaper since they have free shipping

on keyscritters i could get for $186.55 shipped:

50 Blue Leg Hermits
50 Turbo/Astrea Snails
100 Cerith Snails
12 Scarlets

on reeftopia i could get for $190 shipped:

50 Blue Leg Hermits
100 Turbo/Astrea Snails
100 Cerith Snails
24 Scarlets

so i am definately going with reeftopia but do you think that this is a good packager or should i modify it in anyway?

 

[cmsurfr22]

do you think that this many inverts is too many to put in all at once?

 

[anabolic_1]

You don't want the blue hermits, tell them to swap them out with and equall value of scarlett hermits. The blues will eat every thing, even each other, just for their shells.
GL.
Mike

 

[cmsurfr22]

update i wound up going with 100 Turbo Snail [astrae], 15 Nerite tesselatta, 48 Nassarius Snails, 24 Cerith Snails {the good kind}, 4 Emerald Crabs and 4 Peppermint Shrimp.

thanks for the heads up on the hermits. i have a 210 gallon tank so how many scarlets do you think i would need? do scarlets need extra empty shells?? if so how many?

 

[Erich]

Keep in mind no matter if the LR is cured or not you will always get a spike in nitrate. The nitrate levels will level out during some time. You should also have your skimmer running since this also take the nitrate out. You may even look into a doing a water change, perhaps a little larger change than normal.

I had done about a 40% water change on a 72 gallon tank and the nitrates snapped back to a safe level.

On a 210 gallon tank you may want to increase your snails to 150 -175 turbos and about 80 -100 Nassarius. and about 8 -10 Emeralds. More the merrier I always say. You will also need some blue or red claw crabs (80 would be good.) also to clean the substrate.

Happy janitors make happy owners.... ;D