Help picking an algae eater for my chalice tank

[fiddly_foo]

bi-color blennie might touch lps.. but a lawnmower or stary or sailfin never will in ten thousnd they wont.. bi-colors yes... right the only place in my tank were i get long alage is right were the chalice frag ends and the little rock meets the frag disk that little conner or side... ma ticks me off ..lol

 

[las]

thanks guys- uve been very helpful gonna try the snail route first.... the question is do i go with those big mexican turbos or the smaller size ones? what about astreas?

 

[smokenax]

If you could find some hawaiin trochus snails those will work great. mine keep all the algae in my tank in check frag plugs and all.

 

[emerald525]

Have not had a problem with my algae blenny and does a pretty good job. Turbo snails were evicted to the aggressive tank because I got tired of regluing frags. Trochus snails do a decent job and you don't have to worry about them dying if they get flipped over.

I'm still trying to catch the larger of my 2 hippo tangs because she is starting to nip at the acans even with giving her nori every day.

 

[las]

do they have to be HAWAIIN trochuss snail or any trochus?

 

[emerald525]

No does not have to be Hawaain any trochus is fine

 

[BeakerBob]

Sal, I had some algae growing on a couple of plugs with chalices in the past and managed to get rid of it. I have a group of hermits that seem to stay on the floor of the tank. I put the few chailce plugs that had the algae growing on them at the bottm of the tank with the hermits and they ate all the algae off in one night. I just pushed the plug right into the sand. After they were cleaned off, I put the plugs back where they came from.

 

[las]

thanks... i think im gonna go trochus
.

No does not have to be Hawaain any trochus is fine

 

[las]

Thanks bob...
I think im gonna try the trochus... im planning on keeping mandarins and a pipefish.... i heard hermits kill your microfauna... that wuldnt be good for my mandarin

Sal, I had some algae growing on a couple of plugs with chalices in the past and managed to get rid of it. I have a group of hermits that seem to stay on the floor of the tank. I put the few chailce plugs that had the algae growing on them at the bottm of the tank with the hermits and they ate all the algae off in one night. I just pushed the plug right into the sand. After they were cleaned off, I put the plugs back where they came from.

 

[ojmcduff]

I've got a kole tang and I'm suspicious he might be nipping at a chalice here and there. You might just want to stick with mexican turbos and just make sure they don't bulldoze your frags.

I got a tennenti tang about 3 months ago and it prefers hair algae to other foods (also my favorite fish)

 

[coralfarm123]

Turbo snails have always been the best algae cleaners in my tank, but they do move stuff around easily. I also have a large foxface that I've never seen nip at coral. It is also great at eating valonia bubble algae. Some of the other types of rabbitfish are more likely to nip corals.

 

[CookieJar]

I've had a few foxfaces, never seen 1 nip at corals, they are great at wiping out hair algae, not much else though.

 

[las]

do you guys think a black tang or some of the zebrasomas would be chalice safe? My 90 gal is 36 x 24 x 24. Is this size not suitable for a zebrasoma tang?

 

[BayCorals]

In my opinion, a Convict Tang is the best for algae control. The ones I have eats it all day long.

Hung

 

[TCK Corals Verified Sponsor]

My favorite is a Sailfin Tang, my Sailfin even eat bubble algae. My tank use to be full of bubble and now it bubble free.

 

[Lowsingle]

2 bar rabbitfish.....mine eats every type of algae besides bubble and doesn't touch a single coral......he out eats any tang that I have ever had in my almost 20 years of reefing.....my tank is also a LPS / chalice dominated tank with some zoas and SPS. Snails have never worked that well for me and they seem to be always dying on me, so I have a few, but I don't rely only upon them for algae control. If you go snail only, I would go with the mexican turbo....they are big and eat a lot, but they are kind of like bulldozers though. Good luck,

cheers,
Darren

 

[las]

In my opinion, a Convict Tang is the best for algae control. The ones I have eats it all day long.

Hung

do they ever nip at corals? could i keep one in a 90 gal (36x24x24)?

 

[las]

My favorite is a Sailfin Tang, my Sailfin even eat bubble algae. My tank use to be full of bubble and now it bubble free.

I love sailfins. Im pretty sure that my 90 is too small for one of those. Do thay nip at corals at all?

 

[las]

Turbo snails have always been the best algae cleaners in my tank, but they do move stuff around easily. I also have a large foxface that I've never seen nip at coral. It is also great at eating valonia bubble algae. Some of the other types of rabbitfish are more likely to nip corals.

The mexican turbos do a great job. Mine mysteriosly died though. Any chance you could post a pic of your flamethrower? It always puts me in a good mood.

 

[las]

2 bar rabbitfish.....mine eats every type of algae besides bubble and doesn't touch a single coral......he out eats any tang that I have ever had in my almost 20 years of reefing.....my tank is also a LPS / chalice dominated tank with some zoas and SPS. Snails have never worked that well for me and they seem to be always dying on me, so I have a few, but I don't rely only upon them for algae control. If you go snail only, I would go with the mexican turbo....they are big and eat a lot, but they are kind of like bulldozers though. Good luck,

cheers,
Darren

Darren,
Any chance you can post a pic of the 2 bar rabbitfish? I cant find a pic . Are they also poisonous? Would my 36x24x24 be big enough for one?