[nelson4u]

Ok, I have cured my 160 lbs. of live rock in the garage for 4 weeks. Ammonia and Nitrites were zero. I just setup my 140 aquarium and added sand and the live rock 3 days ago. I filled it with fresh RO/DI salt water and aquascaped.

I tested all the parameters today and ammonia and nitrites are zero and nitrates at 3.

Is it ok to add clean up crew ? Is there anything else I should be doing before getting a clean up crew ?

Can anyone recommend what types of snails and hermits and how many I should get for a 140 ?

I was thinking of scarlet hermits as I have heard the blue leg hermits like to kill snails. Also I would like to stay away from Astrea snails as I have read they fall over a lot and can't flip back over and die.

Any help is greatly appreciated. MIKE

[zhenya]

Hi Mike,

I would probably wait a full week and retest water parameters again, just to see if cycling is complete. On the issue of snails...I recommend you read this article by Dr.Shimek, it should help you with the snail choices(grazing snails that is ) I personally love Nerite snails and any Trochid snail I can get my hands on. Hermits are hit or miss in my book. I do not like any of them and rather have good population of bristleworms to do the janitorial duties,they are much more efficient in my opinion.
I have some Astraea snails that have been with me for at least 3 years and so far I had not seen them fall off the glass or the rocks.

Good luck with your set up!

[acropora]

Gene thanks for the excellent link. I also am not a big fan of blue legged hermits and only like to have a few scarlets. I also like to wait longer before adding sand since there will still be some residual die off and accumulation of detritus. It is much easier to siphon it out of a bare bottom tank. Since the sand is in,it is a good idea to get some dertrivore kits with critters such as bristle worms ,spaghetti worms and nasarious snails.By the way,blue legged hermits will attack and eat nasarious snails.

[irabren]

Originally Posted by acropora

Gene thanks for the excellent link. I also am not a big fan of blue legged hermits and only like to have a few scarlets. I also like to wait longer before adding sand since there will still be some residual die off and accumulation of detritus. It is much easier to siphon it out of a bare bottom tank. Since the sand is in,it is a good idea to get some dertrivore kits with critters such as bristle worms ,spaghetti worms and nasarious snails.By the way,blue legged hermits will attack and eat nasarious snails.

good idea to wait till you have sufficient algae for them to eat - before adding - I like astrea, nassarius and cerith snails - don't care for the crabs - also peppermint shrimp and brittle sea star for sand sifters