[bla403]

I am just finishing up the cycling of my first 55 gallon tank and I need some assistance on picking out a cleanup crew. Let me know what you think of this list. 75 lbs of live rock in the tank with a 20 gal sump and skimmer.

1 diamond goby
1 lawnmower blennie
3 emerald crabs
2 cleaner shrimp
1 fire shrimp
1 purple lobster
5 nassarius snails
10 astrea snails

[BLKBRDTA]

Originally Posted by bla403

I am just finishing up the cycling of my first 55 gallon tank and I need some assistance on picking out a cleanup crew. Let me know what you think of this list. 75 lbs of live rock in the tank with a 20 gal sump and skimmer.

1 diamond goby
1 lawnmower blennie
3 emerald crabs
2 cleaner shrimp
1 fire shrimp
1 purple lobster
5 nassarius snails
10 astrea snails

Hey bla403, welcome to the reef and thank you for posting a new thread containing your questions. It is always a great idea to check then recheck everything in this hobby, this will eliminate many many headaches in the future.

First off, if you eventually plan on keeping corals in your display, I would drop the emerald crabs to 0, maybe 1. Its a hit or miss with them chowing down on your corals. Some chomp and others are fine, but I wouldn't take the risk of a loss, but its up to you just my opinion.

Second, I would wait to get the Lawnmower Blenny until the tank has matured and started to grow green hair algae. Some people do report success on feeding Lawnmowers Mysis, Flakes and algae sheet etc. But Most don't show interest in such things, like mine for example.

Purple Lobster - Very shy and more so nocturnal, so lunar lighting is ideal for viewing. Some don't see their Lobster for up to a month or two. The Fire Shrimps are fairly shy as well, but not a problem either way.

That is just my 2 cents on the whole stock list. Other than that, your golden. Plenty or LR, i'm sure a nice substrate bed, skimmer.. your good to go!

Again, welcome to Reef Builders, hope to see you more in the forums!

~Tony

[bla403]

Thanks for the reply!

Ive got a good chunk of algae growing on the rocks now as we speak actually. Some brown hairs all over and some little green bunches.

Let me know your thoughts on that.

Im going to get a set of LEDs for my nova extreme pro so I can have some good tank views at night.

[Number_86]

I love the colur of the fire shrimp but they are quite shy. I have a fire shrimp and a coral banded shrimp in my 65 gallon and I often see the coral banded climbing all over the rocks during the day. This is a wonderful hobby....enjoy!~

[bla403]

Well I went to the LFS and got my crew. They have been in the tank since 9pm last night after acclimation and such.

I wake up this morning to find that 1 of my emerald crabs has a giant sack of eggs its trying to push into the current in the tank.

5 minutes later I watched a cleaner shrimp molt...

Gotta love it.