can someone suggest a compatable fish

[dcox88]

I currently have a 54 gal corner with power quad lighting (192 watts). Substrate is fine grain sand - about 2 1/2 inches deep.
Livestock: Clarkii Clown, Flame Hawk, Royal Gramma, Fire shrimp, astrea and Mexican turbo snails, miniature reef hermit crabs, mushrooms and button polyps.
I am looking for something to replace a yellow tang that was about 4 years old. I think he finally just gave it up.

 

[dcox88]

not sure if I want another tang or not... was kinda thinking of a foxface but need to study up on them before making a decision.

 

[dockery07]

A kole tang might work. A foxface will get too large for a 54 gallon tank. You need to watch out for the clarkii he is going to be a holy terror (maybe) when he grows up.

 

[dcox88]

The Clarkii *IS* grown up! When I got the tank, it was an established tank. There was a small yellow tail blue damsel in the tank and had been there quite a while. I guess the move disrupted everything. The Clarkii took out the damsel. I added the royal gramma to replace the damsel and everthing has been peacefull for about 10 months.

 

[dcox88]

I had thought about a LMB, but my wife really wants more color in the tank. I love the idea of a LMB. I guess I am really looking for somthing to eat algae and be colorful. My tang never ate algae. I have a constant battle with hair algae - the hermits or tang wouldn't go near it!

 

[dcox88]

I am already looking at adding a pink and blue watchman goby. Will the LMB eat hair algae of the rock, or just the glass?

 

[dcox88]

I know, I have tried everything to get rid of it - reduced lighting to about 8 hrs./day. I only feed 3 times per week (1 cube of frozen mysis shrimp or 1 cube of brine shrimp alternated) and DT't phyto according to directions on the bottle. All of the food is eaten - rarely do I see any hit the bottom and if that happens the crabs or shrimp get to that. I only use RO/DI for water cahnges and top off. I do a 15-20% water change every 3 weeks. My nitrate and phosphate levels are not elevated and I have excellent circulation. I continue to have hair alge and cyano (red slime) - I am getting very frustrated with it.

 

[leigh]

the phyto could be doing it. often dosing per the bottles instructions is far too much. try cutting your phyto dosing in half and see if that helps.

 

[dockery07]

I cut my lights to 3 hours per day and did two 25% water changes and the cyno was gone in a week.

 

[jumpfrog]

How about a pygmy angel? A coral beauty or flame would be a nice addition. They do eat algea off the rocks and your tank sounds healthy and stable.
Good Luck!

 

[leigh]

Originally posted by tangsfornuttin
Interesting - how would adding too much phytoplankton have an effect on hair algae?
I dunno, phosphates maybe? I just recall someone mentioning that they dose phyto until hair algae starts then ease back a bit. At the time I was having hair algae problems myself so i tried cutting back my dosage of phyto and it fixed it for me. Maybe spinning around and jumping three times would've worked just as well--this hobby is, after all, as much vodoo as science

 

[clarkiiboi]

I was thinking along the lines of Jumpfrog, maybe an dwarf angel. If your looking for the yellow color, like the tang, maybe a lemonpeel angel. (***I haven't read up on these angels, just a suggestion worth looking at if you like the idea***)

 

[shep]

I must agree the flame angel is very pretty and can eat polyps. If I had your setups I would consider it.