Clean up crew for a nano

[Clay12340]

Hello all, I'm new to the forum. After reading some of the starter articles by Leebca and seeing all the activity on this forum this is looking like a good place to get usable information.

Okay I am new to the reefing hobby and I am completely confused by the information I am finding on the livestock. Every third piece of info I find on a particular critter seems to be different than the two previous. Even stocking information is causing me problems...

My LFS says I should stock whatever fish I am planning on first as they will cause a larger mini-cycle that can harm other inhabitants, while the inverts add very little in the way of waste when added. The guide on here says that your clean up crew should be your first inhabitants. I am assuming it is a matter of hardiness and low price, but I didn't see his reasoning.

So in the opinions of the experienced keepers here what would make an effective clean up crew for a 12g tank with 10lbs of live rock. I imagine more will be added attached to incoming corals as the tank matures. The tank has been cycled for the last two weeks. I assume tank conditions arn't terribly important for the clean up crew, but I'll list them anyhow.

As far as tank conditions go it is a 12g aquapod with a 70W 14000kMH fixture, an AquaC Remora skimmer, and a 50w stealth heater. Any other advisable pieces of hardware I'm missing? All of my tank readings seem to be stabilized and acceptable so far:
PH 8.3
SG 1.024
Temp 77-78 depending on lights
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate have all fallen back to 0.

The only current inhabitant is a mushroom coral and the live rock critters. My planned inhabitants are a Hi-Finned Red Banded Shrimpgoby and a Randall's pistol shrimp, 3 or 4 Sexy shrimp, a skunk cleaner shrimp, a favia brain, possibly acroporas once the tank has matured, a blue crocea clam for as long as it doesn't outgrow the tank, and I'd like to get another small fish that is colorful and active to inhabit the higher sections of the water column without causing problems with the goby. Suggestions or critiques of these choices are welcome.

I'd like to know what reef safe critters make up a good small sized clean up crew that won't outgrow my tank or fight with my hopeful inhabitants and might even look interesting. Everyone's opinions seem to be so different on this that I'm a little overwhelmed. Some claim hermits are great, but Leebca calls them "reef terrorists". I'm assuming that is due to their shell jacking and opportunistic feeding behavior, but I'm not sure.

If you guys could break it down to the whats, whys, whos, and how manys of the clean up crew I would greatly appreciate it. If there is a really good TRUSTABLE source of this info a link or isbn, author, and title of the book would be greatly appreciated as well. Even in the books I've bought the opinions seem to differ by a fair bit.

[wozza]

possibly acroporas once the tank has matured, a blue crocea clam for as long as it doesn't outgrow the tank,

im not 100% on this but i would think you need to upgrade your lighting to keep those, but being a 12gal i guess it gonna be quite shallow.

anyone know for sure?

[Clay12340]

Quote:
possibly acroporas once the tank has matured, a blue crocea clam for as long as it doesn't outgrow the tank,
im not 100% on this but i would think you need to upgrade your lighting to keep those, but being a 12gal i guess it gonna be quite shallow.

anyone know for sure?

I had wondered about this a little too. I'm unsure as to how much water depth a 70W metal halide will keep its intensity through. With the rock work the acros wouldn't be more than 5"-6" below the surface with my very rough current plan for them and they seem to grow up towards the light as well. I'm more worried about providing the necessary flow rate for the acroporas. The clam would be on the bottom, so if one would likely be light starved I'd expect it to be the clam. Which is rather unfortunate as I think the blue patterned clams are one of the most beautiful tank inhabitants of any I have seen.

[RHINO13]

I have been told not to mix any 2 different shrimp species in my tank (46 gal.) because it is not big enough,but I am new to this hobby as well.

That being said, im sure that some more people will chime in