Where to buy cleaning crew in Auckland?

[Ashleigh234]

Hi everyone,

We have had our tank set up for a few weeks and have just put some fish in there, now we need a cleaning crew.

We went to both Hollywood Fish Farms in Auckland and they only had shrimp, trying to figure out where we can get snails etc..... any ideas??

Ashleigh

[davidb]

ask other reefers. they will give/sell you snails depending on the species. We can't get hermit crabs unless they are hitchhikers.

[wilson]

. We can't get hermit crabs unless they are hitchhikers.

:evil:

yea i would try to get a few big snails so they breed

[Ashleigh234]

Any ideas who i could ask on this site?

[wasp]

Where in Auckland are you? I can spare a few snails. Also, from the rocks at the beach you can collect some species that will eat algae in a tank, some less suitable than others.

A cleaning crew, such as you see advertised on some overseas sites, is not really available here due to importing restrictions.

The issue of algae in a marine aquarium is really about phosphate control, you will not control algae long term simply by putting snails etc in. It's all about phosphate, algae needs a certain amount of phosphate and if you can limit phosphate to a low enough level the algae won't grow. There is a lot to learn about phosphate control and many ways to do it, I would suggest spending a bit of time on research on the subject on google, with a search word such as "phosphate control marine aquarium", or similar. You will find much information, some good, some bad, but once you have a reasonable understanding of the issues, and some ideas what to do, come back here and ask, before you actually do anything, just to run your ideas past some other reefers before committing to anything.