Saltwater Clean Up Crew and the Algae they help with

Saltwater Clean up Crews and what types of Algae they help with...

Since the 1980s the phrase "clean up crew" has been used by aquarist and hobbyist, and is used to refer to various small invertebrates used in keeping a reef aquarium clear of pest algae.

The 3 most popular are blue legged hermit crabs, turinaria snails and emerald crabs. Then you have scarlet hermit crabs, limpets, peppermint shrimp, brittle stars, copepods, arthropods, astrea snails, bumble bee snails, nassarius snails, nerite snails, turbo snails, drawf snails, margarita snails, skunk shrimp, sea urchins, and other sea stars.

Different types of marine animals are used for different types of algae, you can use Cerates, Nerites and blue legged hermits to help with Cyano, which is basically a red slimy mess which is long and stringy, and is brownish and sometimes a powdery mess on your aquarium glass and rocks.

You can use ceriths, nerites, astreas, turbos, limpets, chitons and amphipods to help with film algae, which is a micro algae that covers the aquarium glass like a dust.

Blue legged Hermits, Scarlet hermit crabs, turbo snails, limpets, and chitons are the kind of crew you need for long hair algae, which is pretty easy to id, Its usually caused from to much nitrates and phosphates.

Diatoms usually occur after a saltwater tank cycles and is caused from sand or rock or something plastically has recently been added to the tank, ceriths, nerites and chitins are usually the best guys for this job.

Green bubble algae looks like tiny bubbles all over your rock and grows incredibly fast, it can dominate a tank in a month if not taken care of. You will need Emerald crabs for this job. Juvenile emerald crabs are a little better, the smaller the better, so they can really grab hold of the algae without bursting the bubbles. You don't want this algae to spread all over your tank.

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