Cleanup crews

[FSU]

Does anyone use JUST snails for their cleanup crew with no blue legs or any other hermits? If anyone does, how does that work out for you?

[Mike]

We use just snails on the 210g and 20g and do not mix hermits and snails. Once you have seen a hermit rip a snail out of his shell and try it on for size and then decide it doesn't like it and go back to his old shell...

[FSU]

they are pretty adequate without the hermits Mike? Thinking of trying this, but wanted some opinions first

[350gt]

I yanked all my hermits out and I've been fine..

[Europhyllia]

It might just depend on your set up!

I've tried hermit-less in the seahorse tank and it just didn't work. I even tried chitons! For the type of algae and specifically the location of the algae the only thing that worked for me were Mexican Redleg hermits. They can climb the mangrove roots and love to eat my hair algae ( even when it's kind of long-ish and snails no longer touch it and more so than blue legs actually).

I could see being able to go without hermits in my reef tank now though

[allan]

I'm crabless, sort of. There is one red leg in there.

I'm under snailed now, but plan on running just the snails.

[LuckySingh]

its really a hit and miss....none of my invert that i hve kept over the years hve consumed any of the hair algae....
right now i hve nasarious and blue leged hermit combo..they r really gud in consuming the left over food but dnt know for algae...atleast not for me

[Europhyllia]

that's because both nassarius as well as blue legs aren't hair algae eaters. Blue legs may nibble on cyano which might be nice. But I wouldn't get them for hair algae. And Nassarius are definitely for meaty leftovers - not algae.

[FSU]

Yeah I wanted to get a bunch of cerithe snails....but we all know what happens with 150 blue leg hermits in the same tank as them lol. I did and continue to put in empty shells for the blue legs. Maybe that will help?

[LuckySingh]

whats the best for hair alage??

[Monica25]

What's an ideal cleanup crew for a 14 gallon cube?

[FSU]

whats the best for hair alage??

I've always thought that blue legs ate hair algae. They always seemed to have in my tanks. I've only had a really big hair algae problem on one rock. I threw in more hermits and they seemed to have gotten rid of it. I know tangs will pick at it as will lawnmower blennies too.

[FireWater]

Plain red leg hermits for algae if you want crabs. In my opinion the best snails for algae are astrea and small turbos. Cerith and nerites work well around the glass.

[Europhyllia]

Lucky, I think once the stuff is longer, hermits is the way to go but I definitely find the red legs to be more dedicated at the job than the blue legs (I have both in the 215g and only red legs in the 60g).
Monica it really depends on what you are trying to get rid of. Reefcleaners has a nice link on what their critters eat

[FSU]

I've never known....and still don't, the differences with the different hermits. I've just thought blue legs were always the way to go. Mind elaborating Karin, John, or someone else in the know?

[350gt]

my 6 huge turbos do the job for me in the 110, plus the tangs.... But the turbos push everything off the rocks when they are not glued down...

[FireWater]

Big turbos can do some serious rearranging.

I say red legs from previous experience after they were recommended by Karin.

[kkiel02]

My tank is mainly ceriths. I swear by them except when the hair algae gets too long which is what Im facing now. :( I have two blue legs that have made it over from previous tanks that do a decent job but 2 isnt enough in my tank. Ill be getting some more hermits soon... Once the hair algae is gone though Ill be pulling the hermits back out too.

[alton]

Okay I guess I am on the wild side I like Scarlets and Hawaiians, and I do have the others in my 300 but if you can find Hawaiian and Scarlets you are good to go(both in my my 29). If you add 10 scarlets, a year from now you will still have 10. In my 40 I only have snails and they have done an okay job. The big thing is running GFO to keep phosphates down, I had to learn the hard way on my 300.

[Europhyllia]

elaborate:
I settled on the red legs based on info I read on the Garf site (my problem was green hair algae-they have different suggestions for different problems):
http://www.garf.org/greenalgae.html
They said: "This small crab is the best algae eating hermit crab we have tested. Clibanarius digueti feeds on algae that grows on the rocky substrate and mangrove roots. " and that's pretty much what I was looking for so I settled on these and they worked well.
So often you buy stuff, drop it in and it does absolutely NOTHING. I was thrilled when these went to work right away. :) That's all. They are probably the least pretty of all the hermits (the legs aren't all that red) but they do the job I bought them for.
I don't count my snails. I am guessing they would eat snails and sorry if this sounds cold but -meh- stuff happens...