Start with what your tank can actually feed. Choose its volume, age, substrate and the problem you can see. We build a conservative crew from animals currently in stock, show the exact count and live price, and add that recommendation—not a generic bundle—to your cart.
What are you actually fighting? Pick everything that applies.
Choose only problems you can see. A clean tank does not need a larger crew, and adding too many animals at once can leave them without enough food.
The rest of the crew
Everything else we have in the clean up crew right now. The calculator does not add these on its own because most tanks do not need all of them, but they ship in the same box and they count toward the same free shipping subtotal.
How we work the numbers out
We cross-checked the starting ranges against Bulk Reef Supply’s beginner guidance and AlgaeBarn’s Cerith guidance, then kept this calculator lower and problem-specific. The amount of algae and detritus your tank can feed still sets the real limit.
- Astrea snails are selected for visible film algae on glass and rock. We start near one per six gallons, then reduce that for younger tanks.
- Cerith snails appear only when a sand or mixed-substrate tank has a dirty bed or detritus problem. We start near one per seven gallons; a bare-bottom tank gets none.
- Blue leg hermits appear only for leftover food and detritus, at a light starting count near one per twelve gallons. They can kill snails for food or shells, so provide several empty shells in useful sizes.
- Turbo snails appear only for visible hair algae in a tank large and mature enough to feed one. They move real quantities of algae, but they are heavy and can bulldoze loose frags.
- Emerald crabs are selected for bubble algae, not as a default grazer. They are opportunists, so watch them around small or vulnerable tankmates.
- Peppermint shrimp for aiptasia, in a group rather than singly, and only in a tank that has been stable for a while.
- Brittle stars and sea cucumbers are detritus processors, not algae eaters. A cucumber appears only for an established sand bed of at least 75 gallons with a visible sand-bed problem.
- Urchins graze turf and coralline hard. Great for a rock problem, rough on coralline you wanted to keep, and they carry frags around.
These are starting counts, not a promise that more animals will cure the source of an algae problem. Add the recommended crew, watch the tank for two weeks, and increase only if the animals still have food and the problem remains.
How it ships
Livestock leaves on UPS Next Day Air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Shipping is free on livestock orders of $349 or more before tax; every livestock shipment carries a $10 box and handling fee. Eligible Florida overnight livestock shipping is a $30 flat rate. Alaska, ask us for a quote before you order. We do not ship livestock to Hawaii.
Local to the Keys? Skip the box entirely and pick it up at the store at 2816 N Roosevelt Blvd, Suite 1, Key West. Call 305-850-9949 if you want us to hold a crew for you.
Working out a whole build? The full cost breakdown prices every piece, the reef calculators handle volume, salt and running cost, and the REEFER build planner prices a complete Red Sea system from live stock.