Naso tang, rabbitfish or sea hare?
 

I am having a dilemma(to me anyway).I currently have mad crazy amounts of dictyota algae and brown wafer algae in the display. I take full responsibility for the problem as in an attempt to keep everything well fed I have created a nutrient rich environment. Also my dkh has been low(6) and I have slowly got it back up to where it needs to be. Snappy was over yesterday and IDed(thanks again Greg) the algae and informed me that a naso would probably gobble its way through the dictyota and wafer algae. So this got me reading and I also found that rabbitfish will also eat these types of algae. My tank already has two tangs(yellow and regal) and most will say (and I will agree) that I am overstocked as it is. I am afraid of adding another large poop machine to the mix, not just because of the added bio-load, but I would be nervous of the reception that a new tang would receive. My tank is also not really big enough for a naso (long term), although there are some 3" net caught blonde nasos at the store right now. Also at store are some wee small 2" doliatus rabbitfish(we think).... problem with them is, also a large poop machine and are known to munch zoas....and that simply will not do. Ok....then theres a sea hare... probably not quite the bio-load as a naso or rabbitfish, but butt ugly (to me) and has the potential to nuke the tank.

What would you all do?

Not sure if this helps, but check out: http://saltcorner.com/sections/guest.../algaepage.htm

Great page for IDing algaes of all types and possible biological controls. The dictyota algaes are listed as #17, and according to the control section the rabbitfishes they list don't work (doliatus not listed though). The naso tangs are the only tangs cited for #17, as well as mithrax crabs and diadema urchin. Sea hare not cited for dictyota either.

Sounds like a tough one to control:sad:

Francis

I had Dictoyota and Sargassum real bad in my tank when I left it to the tank sitter once. I found with manual plucking (siphon it because those little pieces make new clumps!!), and getting the nutrients under control is wasn't an issue for very long.

Thanks for the great link Francis. Sounds like the naso is the best option as it eats both of my problems.....but creates others....hmmmm.

As I admitted earlier I have a large fish load on the system and the only two fish I would be willing to remove are small and probably add very little to the bio-load(in the grand scheme of things). I have been manually pruning for a couple months now and just yesterday I siphoned out a small filter sock full of the stuff.:surprise:

Do that naso and I'll take it off your hands afterwards. Send you a PM.

If your tank is already overstocked (or pushing it), I don't think adding another large fish will solve your problems especially if (as you say) something like a Naso would only be semi-permanent. Selling one of your larger fish would probably be the best (and easiest) thing you could do. I know that's difficult to do, but I think in the end you would be happier. No one ever takes that kind of advice though. Sorry, I'm a really logical person, so to me the answer is simple. Or...upgrade!!!! :lol:

I highly doubt that the bioload is contributing. I think the algae has just established itself due to overfeeding like Doug mentioned. Since he's got everything else under control now, its just a matter of cleaning up the left over algae. You have a couple of options, 1) manual removal - PITA, 2) letting it dissapate naturally - bad idea in the making 3) biological removal - sorta of simple.

I'd avoid the hare, they seem to be quite picky on what they want to eat, frequently eating some algae and leaving others. Same goes for rabbitfish.

You're biased though...you want the Naso after!!! :p

Ehehe... Sound like me 2 months ago... I dont know if this can help, but I ordered some cerith, afew turbo and some small tiny snail (forgot the name) - And turn out they are my big big helps.
The turbo and cerith work way too hard on those green and brown things, the snall tiny ones keep moving in the sand suface and clean the "like-dark-brown" stuff on the sand. One month I can see a big different. Still some to go, but now I start doing water change weekly and skimming, so I hope the bad and the urgly will goaway soon :lol:

Cheers,