Clean Up Crew-which-with Corals

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Hi
some of you guys have been adding great wisdom to my previous thread.

I have a second hand tank which was previously running for about 15 months before I got it.
I have had it for 5 weeks. It is a Juwel 260(curved front). It came with approx 12 fish, ears, 2 anenomes, 4 hermits and a Boxer Shrimp.

It is a 4 foot tank. I need to know what kind of clean up crew I need, how many and what will be appropriate to live with anenomes and corals.

How many should a tank my size and age have?
 
In addition, can anybody tell me where to get 2mm black perspex or ABS? I priced it at Maizeys. Phew. Anybody know anywhere cheaper. I am going to make adjustments to the tank lid to add 2 mor tubes.

Already getting into the DIY. Fortunately I have a good friend with lots of exp:)erience in SW tabks.
 
While I am at this. Does anybody have just one M1100 Seio second hand for sale?
 
I don't have a scrubber. I have a protein skimmer(Prizm) and good old magnet cleaner
 
Don't have seio, but look at sunsun, I got a 5000L per hour for under R150 from naac, they work wonders
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An anemone will sting it can get it's tentacles on. If it's too big it will spit it out. It sounds like you have elepahant ear coral. Those guys are also notorious fish eaters and faster than they look. A typical cleanup crew will consist of about four hermits in your case and about 2 turbo snails. You don't want too many snails as they can quickly devour the algae and starve to death. Crabs will take other food if itsavailable. A sepent or bristle star are also good detritivores.

For a backing the cheapest would be black or blue plascon enamel. I say plascon because it won't peel or lift. A litre should be plenty for two or three coats. Just air the room well for a day or so and add some fresh carbon to adsorb any bad chemical that will enter the water
 
Tony - I just want to let you, and Lisa, know about hermit crabs.
I have roughly (I dunno if they are all alive still - I don't always see all of them) 60 or so hermit crabs in my 2 metre reef tank.
In my 1.2 metre sea-horse tank, I have about 15 or so hermit crabs....
If you have/get only the small dwarf hermit crabs, then you can add QUITE a huge number, without impacting anything.
The hermit crabs to tend to fight between each other, to get the other's shells..... sometimes, you can end up with hermits killing each other.

IF you do indeed get hermits, then you should watch any snails that you MIGHT get, or might have. Hermits also kill and eat the snails, and then take their shells....

I am talking mostly about locally collected hermits - which I would prefer, much rather than buying them.....

Tony is also correct regarding brittle-stars and serpent stars.....
 
I would agree with Tony and Jacques in terms of hermits, snails and the like. There are other crabs which can be added to a system such as arrow crabs, pom pom crabs and the like, although with some of these crabs, their compatability can be hit and miss
 
if the hermits are available locally, are you suggesting at the LFS or getting them from rock pools?
If rock pools, then how do I tell which are dwarf hermits?
 
Hi Lisa - from the warm waters rock-pools..... You can get brittle stars from your LFS. BUT, also, if you lucky - you should be able to get them in the rock-pools.....

Not serpent stars though.....
 
is it better to go low tide for the pools which would be more difficult to get to other wise, or any rock pool?

anybody got a pic of a brittle star for me?
Can they be a problem with nemmies or coral?
 
No Lisa - unfortunately the only place that I know of, is Maisey's Plastics.... How many mm did you ask for? You should go for the ABSOLUTE minimum - I think the thinnest is 1mm or 1.5mm
 
I got a price on 2mm which is around R350.00 ffor a 1m x 2m sheet.
The 1mm is R170

I would imagine that the 1mm will be too floppy even if I re-inforce it with plastic struts
 
Once I get it all put together should I just alternate the 4 xT5 white, blu, white, blue?
 
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