got ethical husbandry?

Mike and Ashley's 150g reef tank (our first)

I dont quarantine snails or crabs, but then again i dont quarantine anything. Never trust a crab! But small hermits can be fine, always stay away from crabs with pointy sharp claws, i think that means they are more meat eaters vs stubbier claws being more meant for algae. I think ive heard arrow crabs are fine because they have small claws, but im not entirely sure on that one. I think by ugly, he means all of the random blooms you may encounter. For me, after setting up new tanks it generally goes diatoms<pods<green algae<brown algae<sometimes cyano. I think that happens to most people, hopefully its not just me lol
 
WCKDVPR said:
Wouldn't snails/crabs also need to go through quarantine?

What type of crabs are recommended?

Ugly as in algae ugly?
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That would be your choice if you want to QT them. If you're being extremely strict and uber cautious, inverts will need to go through a 72 day QT period to ensure there is no ich on them. I am one that chooses not to QT inverts. I did brush my clam with a toothbrush though and then washed in 2 saltwater baths to rinse off.

I don't have any crabs and never have as I have read they are very opportunistic and if not fed enough will munch on things you don't want them to. So I can't give any suggestions here.

Yes. Ugly as in algae.....first diatoms, then prolly brown/green algae, and then maybe some hair algae. You could get lucky and hope your chaeto out competes, but my guess is you.ll see some of the ugly.
 
I dont mind the uglies that much. I see them more of consuming things that may be in too much of an abundance, like diatoms eat up silicates if i remember correctly? Also, my girlfriends tank had an extreme white pineapple sponge outbreak, which was kinda cool. At first there was one, and we named it sponge bob. Then it doubled in size, and then they appeared all over the tank. Manual removal once or twice, and then they were gone forever. The only thing that i can think of that caused them is adding some uncured (once live) dead rock to the tank, im guessing high phosphates or some other " nutrient " that needed to be broken down
 
Thanks All,

My nitrate is nearly down to zero - assuming the chaeto is pulling that out?

Where would you guys recommend getting some snails that I can comfortably place in the tank without fear of having to quarantine them first (defeating some of the purpose of getting them in the tank now)?

Should I do crabs or just snails (thinking down the road for when I have corals/fish, will there be a compatibility issue with crabs)?

How many in my 150g and do I need to feed them some fish food at least to start?

Thanks. Sorry for all the questions, but the learning process and science is very intriguing to me and I desire to have a nice reef tank at some point.
 
Cleaner or fire shrimp. Should be ok to just throw in imo. I assume they could bring in something unwanted if you don't qt, like anything else, but who knows.
 
I just purchased a few trochus and astrea snails from AC last week because the algae was beginning to grow in my tank (also cycling). Those astreas are ferocious eaters (exact words that AC uses, and they weren't kidding).. the day after I saw a bunch of "streaks" of eaten algae on my rocks left by the astreas.. the trochus otoh, moved by a couple of inches lol. The trochus are pretty though and they supposedly can right themselves if they are knocked over. I'll be getting more of those astreas this weekend tho because my tank is turning more brown than UPS.

As far as how safe they are disease-wise? Not sure, I figured since I don't have any fish and probably won't for a couple more weeks then I'm willing to take the risk.


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It is starting....getting brown spots on the marine pure blocks in the refugium, which is getting 12 hours of light from the H80. Chaeto has doubled or maybe tripled in the 10 days it has been in there.

Planning to get a few various snails this weekend (4-6?). Besides trochus and astrea, thinking about cerith and nerite so there are varied means of attack on what is coming.

Should I put any in the refugium?
 
4-6 won't put a dent in a 150G. If you're just trying to see if something will live, 4-6 would do. But if you're expecting them to clean, I'd say start of with 20ish. I easily have at least 50 snails in my tank (probably 100 if you include the teeny, tiny baby trochus) and it's only 65G total volume. Trochus and ceriths are great because they can right themselves in they flip over on their shells. Astera and nerite cannot.

They'll eventually find their way down there if you ever have snail babies, but I wish they wouldn't. They get stuck in my skimmer, skimmer pump, plug up my fuge drains...bleah.
 
Thanks. I'll grab 20 or so for starters. Is AC a good place to get them or Neptune or either. I'll try and email Neptune and see what they have as they are closer.
 
WCKDVPR said:
It is starting....getting brown spots on the marine pure blocks in the refugium, which is getting 12 hours of light from the H80. Chaeto has doubled or maybe tripled in the 10 days it has been in there.

Planning to get a few various snails this weekend (4-6?). Besides trochus and astrea, thinking about cerith and nerite so there are varied means of attack on what is coming.

Should I put any in the refugium?
Click to expand...

Arnold is putting together a group buy for clean up crew

http://www.bareefers.org/forum/thre...-up-crew-inverts-pick-up-at-swap.20843/unread
 
The thing I hate is that the lfs keeps their snails in same system water as their fishes. And I can see fish with ich and parasites in some of these places. Thus you have the question do you need to quarantine them longer?
 
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