Frag Tank Clean Up Crew

[andrewey]

One of my frag tanks is a bare-bottom 20 long (independent from other tanks for coral redundancy). Does anyone have any recommendations for any fish/inverts to help with cleaning the stray filamentous bits that form on frag plugs? The tank currently has no inhabitants, so I'm looking for something simple that will 1) fit in the tank and 2) not create more problems than it/they solve (buying a small tang and having to rehome, buying a nudibranch that would quickly starve, etc.). Thanks!

 

[Roboson]

What kind of algae are you worried about? Green hair algae only?

 

[andrewey]

It's not really hair algae. For example, in this picture (not mine), there's some filaments and other microalgae growths (the ones that aren't just hair algae) along the frag plugs, which is somewhat similar to what I'm talking about. In my other tanks, I'm used to having this kind of stuff picked clean by the tangs, so I was curious to see if there were any snails or other fish that could fit in a 20 that would go specifically for these kinds of growth. In my case, it's pretty slow growing because I'm running the frag tank as a ULNS, but I was curious to see if I could eliminate most of it anyway.

 

[KingBlingTX]

I would recommend a lawnmower blenny and a mix of nerite and trochus snails.

 

[andrewey]

My only concern with the lawnmower is that this stuff is so slow growing that almost 99% of his food would have to come from me feeding him tons of nori/pellets, as there isn't enough to last him more than 30 minutes of chomping once or twice a month.

 

[donnievaz]

Adding a Six-Line Wrasse would take care of any hitchiking pests.

 

[andrewey]

Thanks- all my frags go through a pretty strict dip/QT procedure, so I have yet to have any pests that a sixline would take care of (used to use them, but they can be nasty little fish if you ever need to move them to a regular reeftank, hence why I avoid them now).