Any more room in my 46gal for one more thing?
 

So im pretty sure I know the answer to this already but I figured it couldnt hurt to just throw this out as I havent done anything yet. So im getting my phosphates close to nil but still have a some different and interesting little algae growing about my reef. Was wondering if there was something to get that will graze on anything that pops up. All I have right now is carnivores basically and was thinking some diversity would be nice. My tank consists of a 46gal with 1 bengaii cardinal, 1 firefish, 1 longnose hawkfish and 1 six line wrasse. Oh and a tiger tail cucumber. (couple shrimps but im trapping them as soon as the trap arrives.) Im totally ok if im already at my limit. I kind of figured that I am but not really sure what I can get away with as im still pretty new. Thanks for any opinions.

why would you remove the shrimp?
They are great scavengers.

While I agree, for some reason my 2 peppermints have developed a taste for pocillapora and acans. Not exactly sure why but they stripped a piece in one night. I shelved it and the polyps are slowly coming back. I dont want all my corals on shelves in my tank because of a few shrimps.

bump?

They are probably going after the coral because they have nothing else to eat. Are you feeding them? Something like shrimp pellets after the lights are out.

You have room in you tank for a couple of smaller fish. Which ones were you thinking of getting?

Well when I feed mysis or something of that nature just before lights out, you can watch them snag a few pieces of it. So how much food do they need? I was under the understanding that if you fed too much they wouldn't do any cleanup. Easier to just wait for food. I haven't decided yet on what to get. I would like something thats more of a vegetarian as all I have now is more of the carnivore column. I like the lawnmower blenny but am worried about the possibility of clam mantle or sps nipping. Tang would be awesome but unfortunately the tank is just not big enough. Couple of the other blennies are cool too but when reading, some sites are saying they may chase my firefish (who is already a pretty shy fish) Although I would imagine its probably the same as the shrimps in a full fish is a nice happy fish. Thanks very much.

I'm not sure about fish recommendations but tuxedo urchins are great for eating almost any kind of algae.

Thanks, Id love to get an urchin but I heard they tend to have a taste for silicone corners?

I have not heard of this or had any of the lawnmower blennies i've had do that or chase any other fish. Will chase their own type and thats about it.

In my experience that's what rock boring urchins do. The tuxedos just carry and re-distribute stuff all over your tank.

Re-distribute as in.... corals and such? Are they clumsier then snails and such for knocking stuff around?

If its small enough to be knocked over a tuxedo is likely to just pick it up. They'll carry small unattached frags, individual polyps, pieces of rock, shells, and bubble algae etc. I even had one carry around a dead fishes skull for a week a few years ago.

But they are great at stripping all sorts of algae off your rocks. If you add too many they will keep your rock almost completely bare and white. I have several in my refugium to keep the hair algae that grows on the sides in check. They seem to leave the gracillaria and chaetomorphia alone.

Very interesting. Thanks very much.