clean-up crew

On Friday my Tenecor 75g hex will be in. I've been lurking on these boards for some time now and I feel more knowledgeable. Thanks everybody!

One of the grey areas have been clean-up crew. The thing that baffles me is the amount of snails, crabs, ect.. that I see recommended. It's been 10 years since I've had a saltwater tank, but one thing that has stuck with me is being careful to not overstock.

This is what I'm planning on doing ...


- 100lbs of live sand
- 90lbs of live rock

over the course of a year

- 2 Clownfish (leaning towards peculiar at the moment)
- Anenome (haven't decide on what kind yet)
- cleaner shrimp
- blood red shrimp
- Purple tang (this may not happen though)
- Flame angel
- clean-up crew ?

I'm not planning for any corals until about a year into the tank. I'll need to upgrade the lighting before I do that and wifey feels I've already spent too much money.

What would work for a clean-up crew?

TIA
~Paul

 

couple of things from my short experience w/ my reef tank, being on this site and from alot of reading.  

1st the anemone are generally hard to keep and will also probable need the lighting upgrade as well as the coral.


2nd if you want to get an anemone and clownfish that go together percula might not be the best.  the percula clowns only host 3 types of amenones and all of which are very hard to keep.  the ocellaris clowns may take to a BTA which is a better anemone but its not there natural host and doesn't always happen.  there is a link on this site that gives you a chart of clownfish and there host anemones check it out.  i was originally going to get percula clowns as well but i changed my mind and got clarkii clowns because they host almost every anemone that will host clowns.  And, from what i have read the only anemone i would attempt to get are the BTA the saddle anemone or the LTA.  They all have there good and bad traits like they are the hardiest anemones but the BTA will move alot the saddle will get very large and could eat fish, the LTA requires at least a 4" sand bed.  Just to name a few.  

3rd  the purple tang will get 10" and will get to big for a 75gal tank  especially a hex.  you may want to rethink that.  there is also a great link about tangs on this site to read.  All tang will require atleast a 48" long tank

4th from what i have heard flame angels are unpredictable, they may do great in the tank or they may nibble at coral.  So, it is up to you but something to consider.

5th as for how large of a cleanup crew to get everyone says something different.  I did mine in pieces and evaluated how much they were cleaning inbetween and added more as a saw appropriate.  I like my nassarius, mexican turbos, bublebee, and margarita snails.  The mexican turbos get 3X the size but do 5X the work.  And as far as hermit crabs i would stick to scarlet reef blue leg red leg and zebra leg hermit crabs.  I love my zebra  hermit crabs mine seem to be on crack, there very active and i enjoy watching them.  i ended up getting about 1 snail per 1.5gal and 1 hermit crab per gal.
Joe

 

for the clean up crew i dont like adding a ton of snails and crabs but a small variety IMO works better. i used a few maby 4-5 of each that i got in my clean up kit, turbos, trochus, peppermint, nassarious snails. plus my shrimp since they eat different alges and foods