Which clean up crew? Please help

I have a 210 Gallon tank and am looking to buy a reef cleaner package. I have seen two packages and they are very different in price. Can someone please take a look at these and tell me which one I should go with if I plan on having a reef. Thanks,

Brad

Reef Cleaners

212 Dwarf Ceriths
51 Nassarius
69 Florida Ceriths
34 Large & 21 Small to Medium Nerites
45 Assorted Hermits
Total $171.26

Aquatic Connection
150 Astreas,
10 Trochus,
50 Scarlet Hermits,
120 Mexican Blue leg Hermits,
5 emerald crabs
Total $409.00

Or last

14 Scarlet Reef Hermits
- 24 Astrea Snails
- 2 Emerald Crabs
- 3 Sea Cucumbers
- 3 Horseshoe Crabs
- 3 Colored Serpant Stars
- 6 Nassarius Snails
- 1 Coral Banded Shrimp
- 2 Queen Conch
- 1 Arrow Crab
- 1 Tiger Sand Star

$200.00

 

how long has the aquarium been up and running?

I would go with package 1 to start.

the second package seems way over priced IMO

down the road I would add the following
1 Sea Cucumbers (tiger tail)
Queen Conch
20+Scarlet Hermits

I have personally added emerald crabs and they are now in my sump.

 

I have been running for about 6 months now. I am running an upflow algae scrubber that is working great and my 220 lbs of live rock are turning nice and purple. I do have some green algae growing on the glass and rocks that I have to scrub daily.

Thanks,

Brad

 

do you have some cuc already?

the best cuc i have are

tiger tail
strawberry conch
red hermits
turbo and centh and nass snails
skunk cleaner shrimp

cuc not to add IMO (learned the hard way)
sand sifting star
emerald and arrow crabs

 

j


Like I said, I have no inverts at this time. I do have 2 cleaner shrimp, but that is it. What would be my best bet. I am willing to pay 400 if that is the best way to go. I just want to make sure that its the best way.

 

Personally I would stick to just snails, lots of them. My favorites are zebra turbos, a few of these will take care most everything.

I've always had too much problems with crabs. They crawl all over all the corals and sometimes nip on them, they also kill snails for their shells.

 

+1 I have a hermit who has already killed 4 nerite snails, and countless ceriths. I would do a snail only crew from Reef Cleaners and add as needed.

 

I went with the reef cleaners. What do you recommend I put in my sump? I have alot of algae in my sump as I am running red led lights with an up flow algae scrubber.

 

IMO hermit crabs are essential to a reef - they only kill snails if there are no empty shells.

snails hermit crabs are agreat start - go with option #1 and add as needed.

 

Disagree 100% (my opinion of course). One of my hermits (that apparently came with my snail order, since I did not order any!) that has a plenty big enough shell (twice as large as the biggest snail I have) still kills and eats snails at his pleasure. I am not saying he shouldn't get any hermits period, just start with snails and add to the crew as needed.