Baby Tang

[Superbean]

I have a Red Sea Max nano tank with a nice reef and lots of small coral . I have community fish and have enough bioload left for another one.

I have a growing issue of hair algae. I know tangs need a larger tank for long term. i want to get a baby tang and swap them out every few months to control the algae.

is this a good idea? I would love input. I have been using the ecosystem to balance things out and I would love to know which species may be best for this.

 

[nereefpat]

With a display volume of 16.5 gallons, you would be better off with a small blenny. Or better yet, snails and crabs.

 

[huckjai]

I'm fairly new here, but have been reading a lot on the forums. Based on what I've read, I would determine the reason for the algae issue first. Are you overfeeding your tank / too much nutrients? Maybe phosphates are too high. Or too much light? These are just some of the reasons that I've read that causes an algae boom.

Seems like the best course of action would be to address the cause, then go from there. Also, wait for some experts to chime in, because I'm a newb. =)

 

[Superbean]

With a display volume of 16.5 gallons, you would be better off with a small blenny. Or better yet, snails and crabs.

I have a display volume of 100mL. So it is more like 30 gallons..

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

@huckjai summed it up pretty well

 

[Gareth elliott]

The great thing about nanos is situations like these where a 100g we are talking hundreds of pounds combined of rocks and sand.
in a nano you can easily make a bucket of saltwater to scrub your rocks in, do a 50 % wc before work, spot treat things like bubble algae, etc.
Dont be discouraged you cant have a tang

 

[nereefpat]

I have a display volume of 100mL. So it is more like 30 gallons..

100 liters maybe?

 

[Jesterrace]

I have a Red Sea Max nano tank with a nice reef and lots of small coral . I have community fish and have enough bioload left for another one.

I have a growing issue of hair algae. I know tangs need a larger tank for long term. i want to get a baby tang and swap them out every few months to control the algae.

is this a good idea? I would love input. I have been using the ecosystem to balance things out and I would love to know which species may be best for this.

Terrible idea. Catching fish isn't an exact science and that would put incredible stress on both the fish and the owner. Bump up your clean up crew, get a tailspot blenny and look at what is causing the hair algae (ie running lights too long, overfeeding, not using RODI water, not changing out filter floss/sock/cup when you should, lack of clean up crew).

If all else fails Fluconazole (aka Reef Flux) will help wipe it out for you so you can start with a clean slate and address the problem(s). I did a single dose and let it sit for a month with no water changes.

Here was my tank 2 weeks prior to treatment (see all the hairy gunk in the rockwork):

 

[Jesterrace]

Here it was after letting it sit for a month with no water changes:

 

[MERKEY]

Did it hurt your corals in there?

 

[Tamberav]

I have a Red Sea Max nano tank with a nice reef and lots of small coral . I have community fish and have enough bioload left for another one.

I have a growing issue of hair algae. I know tangs need a larger tank for long term. i want to get a baby tang and swap them out every few months to control the algae.

is this a good idea? I would love input. I have been using the ecosystem to balance things out and I would love to know which species may be best for this.

So you want to get a disease magnet fish and risk swapping it every few months as well as causing it stress each time increasing the risk of disease ?

No offense but just to put it in perspective.

Just get a tuxedo urchin and be sure to do regular maintance and keep your rock and sand clean and you won't have gha.

 

[Superbean]

100 liters maybe?

Yep!

 

[Sashaka]

I have a Red Sea Max nano tank with a nice reef and lots of small coral . I have community fish and have enough bioload left for another one.

I have a growing issue of hair algae. I know tangs need a larger tank for long term. i want to get a baby tang and swap them out every few months to control the algae.

is this a good idea? I would love input. I have been using the ecosystem to balance things out and I would love to know which species may be best for this.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but I agree with what others are saying. In my experience a tang is not going to control a true hair algae problem anyway. It may pick at it here and there, but most tangs don't particularly like hair algae. I have a regal, yellow, and Kole tang in my 180 and only the Kole picks at hair algae when I get it. That's not to say there isn't a tang out there somewhere that would eat it more aggressively, just none of the tangs I currently own or the ones I've owned over the years have liked it.

The biggest reasons I would advise against getting a tang is because the tank is so small (most tangs need a lot of room to swim) and you plan to swap it out ever few months. This plan would cause stress on the fish you're trading out, AND stress on any other fish you have in the tank every few months. It also opens your tank to the introduction of disease or an unwanted pathogen every few months.

To control the algae, I would load up on your CUC, feed less, black out the tank for a week or so, turn off lights a few hours earlier every day after that, make sure the tank is not getting any direct sunlight from a window, check your phosphate and nitrate levels regularly and do water changes to control these excess nutrients. There are products out there such as Vibrant and API Algaefix that some here have had luck with to help control algae, but in my experience, anything I add to the tanks seems to cause a new but different problem. It's better to control the cause of the algae than to just kill it without addressing the cause because it will just come back again otherwise. Hang in there. It's a battle but one that can be won.

 

[Katrina71]

Get a diverse mix of snails. Be sure to include ninja star snails.

 

[New&no clue]

+1 on the tuxedo urchin they do an amazing job clearing algae

 

[Superbean]

I know this is not what you want to hear, but I agree with what others are saying. In my experience a tang is not going to control a true hair algae problem anyway. It may pick at it here and there, but most tangs don't particularly like hair algae. I have a regal, yellow, and Kole tang in my 180 and only the Kole picks at hair algae when I get it. That's not to say there isn't a tang out there somewhere that would eat it more aggressively, just none of the tangs I currently own or the ones I've owned over the years have liked it.

The biggest reasons I would advise against getting a tang is because the tank is so small (most tangs need a lot of room to swim) and you plan to swap it out ever few months. This plan would cause stress on the fish you're trading out, AND stress on any other fish you have in the tank every few months. It also opens your tank to the introduction of disease or an unwanted pathogen every few months.

To control the algae, I would load up on your CUC, feed less, black out the tank for a week or so, turn off lights a few hours earlier every day after that, make sure the tank is not getting any direct sunlight from a window, check your phosphate and nitrate levels regularly and do water changes to control these excess nutrients. There are products out there such as Vibrant and API Algaefix that some here have had luck with to help control algae, but in my experience, anything I add to the tanks seems to cause a new but different problem. It's better to control the cause of the algae than to just kill it without addressing the cause because it will just come back again otherwise. Hang in there. It's a battle but one that can be won.

I appreciate the advice very much along with others noted here as well. I am aware of exactly why I have this algae and know that I don’t have to eradicate all of it, I just want the best method of controlling it.

Man, do I wish I had a bigger tank but having this one has been a great way of learning to keep everything balanced out..

I will feed them less and adjust the light schedule accordingly. But once again back to trying to raise Ph slightly as well.

Thanks guys!

 

[Superbean]

Get a diverse mix of snails. Be sure to include ninja star snails.

What is different about ninja star snails!

 

[Katrina71]

What is different about ninja star snails!

Hardest workers in the tank! I've found they eat things other snails don't.

 

[Jesterrace]

Did it hurt your corals in there?

Nope

 

[Sashaka]

I appreciate the advice very much along with others noted here as well. I am aware of exactly why I have this algae and know that I don’t have to eradicate all of it, I just want the best method of controlling it.

Man, do I wish I had a bigger tank but having this one has been a great way of learning to keep everything balanced out..

I will feed them less and adjust the light schedule accordingly. But once again back to trying to raise Ph slightly as well.

Thanks guys!

There are many quick fix options out there that raise ph, but over the long term may be best used as temporary fixes. PH buffers is one. One example is Seachem Reef Buffer. I find that most of the ph buffers work pretty much the same; however, I believe using a quality kalkwasser is the better option as it's an all in one calcium, Alkalinity, and ph supplement. Using buffers alone can raise Alkalinity too high over time. BRS has a video that can explain how to dose kalkwasser: https://aquarium.bulkreefsupply.com...stom&uid=101008063&w=kalkwasser&**=tab:videos .

Reef Keeping has an in depth article that provides education in problem solving a PH issue. I found it very helpful when I was learning how to control ph in my tanks: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rhf/
Maybe it will be of help to you as well. Good luck!