SAL FIN or YELLOW tang

[JOHNNY13]

i am going to store after work today to buy one of the two fish. i am buying this fish to help keep a green hair algea problem under control. it really isnt a problem anymore it is on my live rock in crevices. i had a big problem with the green hair , but used r/o and constant cleaning to get it where it is now. sooooo, my question is housed in a reef in progress tank, what would be the better grazer, if there is a difference at all?

yellow tang or sal fin tang

[hmotorsol]

How big is your tank? Depending on the size of your tank, i wouldn't put either in anything smaller than a 75. If your tank is smaller i would look into getting a sailfin/ algae blenny my goes nuts on that stuff.

[JOHNNY13]

yeah it's 55 gal. i had a blenny that would not touch it. he died, and all my water parameters were right on. i have a friend who has been in the hobby for years now, and he recommended the yellow tang. he can get them small 1-2 inch, and he said 55 gal would be ok for a while then would have to upgrade tank or trade fish for another smaller one.

[JOHNNY13]

How big is your tank? Depending on the size of your tank, i wouldn't put either in anything smaller than a 75. If your tank is smaller i would look into getting a sailfin/ algae blenny my goes nuts on that stuff.

i also read about a sea hare, but not sure about the idea that they can release chemicals, to potentially kill my other stock.

[buttered loins]

yeah go with the yellow tang, even though i have a sal fin and hes great. a yellow tang probally will eat the green algea compared to a salfin. and how long have you had your tank? because i know i had alot of green algea every where and slowly it disappeared as my tank got fully established which was for a year or so.

[JOHNNY13]

i had it set up as fowlr for about 7 months. i went on vacation and had someone look after my tank, and when i came back it had already started. at that time i was using conditioned tap water. i switched to r/o and cleaned everything off other than filter and aragonite. its only in crevices of live rock now, but i dont want another out break.

[Ace25]

Ideally any Tang in a 55 is not the best option, but for your problem (which I am still going though myself right now) the Yellow tang would be the best bet. I have a 75G and I would never even consider putting a tang in my tank.. but to each their own. A Tang may seem like the easiest solution to your problem but there are probably a dozen other options that may require a little more work but still give the the same results without stressing out an animal to do the work for you (Turbo snails being a great alternative to Tangs in smaller tanks for hair algae control, they just bulldoze corals over so most reefers don't care for the snails). JMHO.

[JOHNNY13]

it's something i have been going back and forth on. i didnt go to store yesterday because i cant decide what i want. it would only be 1 smaller tang. i know they grow larger, and thats what holds me back. i dont want a ton of turbos in there. i could go sea hare but, i hear that can be risky if it gets startled or dies it releases toxins into the water potentially killing everything. i moved my tank to basement and started using r/o water, with phose removing kit in filter to try and control my self. is there any other smaller fish that is reef safe and looks good that will eat green hair algae?

[Ace25]

Unfortunately no. Most people will say Algae Blennies (Lawnmower Blennies) will help but from my experience they do very little to help the problem. 1 turbo snail will do 10x more algae control than a lawnmower.

If you decide on a Tang my suggestion is get the smallest one and let it do its job and then bring it back to the store within a couple months. Even a small Tang will outgrow a 55G in 6 months easily. They are very fast growers and need lots of swimming room to be happy. I am not a fan of seahares myself for the reasons you stated. They do great work on hair algae but since they are soft/no shell I always worry about what fish may pick on them in my tank and stress them to the point of causing toxins to release.... so I never attempted one myself.

Just thought of another possible solution... lettuce nudibranchs. About the only "safe" nudibranch I know of for an aquarium and they do eat hair algae. Again, soft bodied so it is possible fish my pick on it. I had one in my tank for a few months and the fish didn't bother it, but my flow was way too much for it to handle so it wasn't a good idea for my tank, but may be for yours.

[hmotorsol]

I must have got really lucky with my algae blenny because he makes a decent dent in the algae. Though i do have a turbo snail also. in the 10 gallon i had him in he did knock over everything but in the 75 he hasn't knocked over much of anything. I was thinking u could get a foxface rabbit but i heard they are very hard to catch and prob would need a bigger tank when its older too.

[Catpicklesdog]

I "rented" a sea hare from my LFS. Had it in my tank for a week and all my hair algae has gone and stayed gone:)

I wouldn't recommend buying one with a view to keeping it though, as once the algae has gone it would starve.

Might be worth talking to your LFS to see if they're willing to do a similar thing?

[JOHNNY13]

i went to store today the guy there pointed out another tang. said it stays small, and loves to eat algae. its blueish color with an orange ring around it's eye. i might go that rout. he also told me if i keep up on the r/o water and use phos ban in my filter it will stay gone. i am willing to try this method for a bit, hold off on jumping into anything.