[david6789]

What is a good clean up crew for a 75 gallon? I have a few good FS in my area and want to go pick some up today. My water is near perfect and my tank has cycled. Time for a clean up crew.

[david6789]

Also going to get 4 x Green Chromis damsels, what other hardy "new tank" fish can I get?

[stephaniesquires]

Originally Posted by david6789

What is a good clean up crew for a 75 gallon? I have a few good FS in my area and want to go pick some up today. My water is near perfect and my tank has cycled. Time for a clean up crew.

Have you had the diatom bloom yet? Do you see any algae yet? If yes to both then I would suggest starting with a small clean up crew. For my 220 I started with 8 turbo snails, 8 or so nassurius snails, a dozen or so hermits, 2 stars, and a few other assorted snails. Remember your tank is very young and wont support a large clean up crew yet. I am now (2 months later) adding a few more as the crew I have is not keeping up. For a good guide go the marinedepot.com and check out their livestock section, they have suggested clean up crew packages. Read about each one to make sure you want them in your tank. I did not get a cucumber, nor any shrimp yet as I dont think my tnak is mature enough to support them. I also got 1/3 of what they recommended for a 100 gallon (mine is 240). It is easier to add more if you see they're not keeping up.

Originally Posted by david6789

Also going to get 4 x Green Chromis damsels, what other hardy "new tank" fish can I get?

Depends on what type of tank you want, do you want corals? If so that will limit some of your choices. Start with the chromis, while they are in QT, you can research other choices.

[Mattfish]

In another post from last night, I mentioned that the guys who set up our tank (125g) put in 36 hermits, 36 turbos, and 10 nassarius. He also said you can't really overclean your tank, meaning more couldn't hurt - even in a new, cycled tank. We got another 12 larger red leg hermits yesterday, because my wife likes the bigger ones. They also said replenish that amount every 3 months due to die off. We figured we'd split it in thirds and do it monthly.

But if you got 24 hermits, 24 turbos, and 10 nassarius, you ought to be doing good.

And I agree with Stephanie - the damsels will get territorial. And after a few motnhs, the chromis' may get a bit boring and take up too much bio load against what you'd rather have. It's not much bio load,but you can only put so much in a tank.... planning what you want is really helpful - our first tank, we got too much into the bright-shiny-fish complex and ended up with some stuff we'd later wished we'd been more thoughful about.

[david6789]

Ok I got 4 Green chormis, 6 red leg and 6 blue leg hermits, 5 turbos, and 5 nassarius. I also have 2 hitch hiker stars and some feather dusters.



Yes I have had my diatom and some algae.

[Mattfish]

You may want to change the diatom(s). Every two weeks is what my lfs suggests, and for $7 each, worth the change to prevent nitrates rising. Especially if you've got algae growing on them. The other tip was to rince them in clean water first to get the loose stuff off - this will make life easier on the skimmer.

[david6789]

Originally Posted by Mattfish

You may want to change the diatom(s). Every two weeks is what my lfs suggests, and for $7 each, worth the change to prevent nitrates rising. Especially if you've got algae growing on them. The other tip was to rince them in clean water first to get the loose stuff off - this will make life easier on the skimmer.

huh?

What?

[Mattfish]

Not sure which part the ??? applied to, but on the assumption I was making no sense at all, the diatom bags need to be changed regularly - every two weeks is the recommendation we got - they collect all the solid particles (anything bigger than 5 microns in size) and have to be changed. Particularly if yours have alge blooms on them, that inhibits that part of the bag from allowing filtration and flow through.

Before putting a new bag into the sump, you'll want to wash it in clean fresh water to get the little bits of cotton or whatever off there - otherwise, when you put the new bag into your sump, the flow will wash all the little bits of stuff (excess cotton or material) off and into your skimmer, or into your tank. Washing them first will make the system cleaner.

Did that make sense?

[stephaniesquires]

Originally Posted by david6789

huh?

What?

Not diatoms as in diatom bloom, there are some new filtering referred to as diatom - confused me too till I remembered someone else asking about diatoms for cleaning a tank....

[david6789]

Originally Posted by Mattfish

the diatom bags need to be changed regularly

Oh there is a diatom bag? The previous posts only spoke of a diatom bloom not any bags to control it. That is what threw me off, I as thinking "did he say to change the diatom algea every two weeks?

Sorry abou tthe confusion

[NATIVEVAMAN]

I would wait till you see green algea before adding the clean up crew.And I would wait for fish till algea is gone.