09/03/2026
💡 PRO CARE TIP: BUILD YOUR CLEANUP CREW FOR YOUR TANK!
🚫 DON’T BUY PREBUILT CLEANUP CREW PACKS!
Every aquarium is different, so buying a cleanup crew based strictly on tank volume simply doesn’t make sense.
Two 100-gallon tanks can have completely different amounts of rock, sand, algae, detritus and available food—and therefore need completely different cleanup crews.
Before adding anything, ask:
🔎 WHAT PROBLEM ARE YOU TRYING TO SOLVE?
Film algae? Hair algae? Diatoms? Uneaten food? Detritus? Sand-bed cleanup?
📏 HOW MUCH SURFACE AREA DO YOU HAVE?
A heavily aquascaped reef has far more grazing area than a minimally aquascaped or bare-bottom tank of the exact same volume.
🍽️ HOW MUCH FOOD IS AVAILABLE?
The goal isn’t to see how many cleanup animals you can fit—it’s determining how many your aquarium can actually support. Overstocking can leave animals competing for food and eventually starving.
🐌 CHOOSE THE RIGHT ANIMAL FOR THE JOB
• Trochus/Astrea-type snails → rock & glass algae
• Nassarius snails → leftover meaty foods
• Conchs → sand-surface grazing
• Hermits → opportunistic scavenging/grazing
• Specialized crabs → certain algae or specific problems
⭐ START WITH WHAT YOUR TANK NEEDS—THEN ADD MORE ONLY IF NEEDED.
Your cleanup crew should change as your aquarium changes.
At Ellis Aquatics, we don’t believe in blindly selling you a predetermined number of cleanup animals based on gallons. Tell us your tank size, age, aquascape and what you’re actually trying to clean, and we’ll help you build a cleanup crew specifically for YOUR reef.
DON’T BUY A BOX. BUILD A CREW.
📍 Ellis Aquatics
the HIGHEST quality, the LOWEST prices
2301 N Wilmington Ave., Compton, CA 90222
📞 562-822-6673
