when to add cleanup crew

[scott11]

My new 120 is almost cycled, getting read to put in some life.

Do you add the cleanup crew first, or a few fish? What is a good cleanup for a 120? How many snails/crabs? Can i add the entire crew, or add in stages. I would like to order all of it at once- should I overfeed to make sure they have food?

I have never had a system this size, so I dont know what it takes to keep it clean

[jnb]

make sure it is cycled - don't add much to begin with - dont overfeed, when algaes appear start adding the crew - fish or not - what caused the cycle; did you have a fish in there to poop to start it off? On that tank I would add about 20 snails once the algae appears and more as time goes on. I have the same size and have about 100 snails but you should work up to it a bit

what it takes to keep it clean is different for everyone depending on what you put in your tank tha needs cleaning

Originally posted by scott11
My new 120 is almost cycled, getting read to put in some life.

Do you add the cleanup crew first, or a few fish? What is a good cleanup for a 120? How many snails/crabs? Can i add the entire crew, or add in stages. I would like to order all of it at once- should I overfeed to make sure they have food?

I have never had a system this size, so I dont know what it takes to keep it clean

[rdlisby]

For sure on starting out slow, when I started in this hobby I blew threw hundreds of cleaning crew critters..... What a waste of money that was. Its expensive tuition as my dad says.

[airdog67]

The lfs in my area said to start with a clean up crew when my tank started on its algae cycle. MY snails, crabs did fine. good luck.