Your Cleanup Crew

An essential part of any reef aquarium is the cleanup crew. These are the janitors of your reef. They will help control nuisance algae, help clean the glass, and remove detritus and diatoms. They scavenge for any left over food that may be on the bottom and in hard to reach places such as in between rocks.

They will consist of snails, hermit crabs, true crabs, cleaner shrimp, and sea cucumbers. Other options are sea urchins and starfish. The last 2 can become very large and some species are meat eating predators that may attack and eat other janitors as well as small fish, coralline algae, and many corals. I do not recommend sea urchins or starfish unless you have a very large tank.

You start adding them right after your tank cycles.

Add them slowly, a few at a time, several days apart. This allows your bacteria colonies enough time to grow to sufficient quantities to handle the bio load. If you add too many all at once it is likely your tank will start another cycle. Not good news.

Please use the folowing links to learn about the choices you have for these important members of your reef aquarium.