Tangless reef tank?

[Corey D]

So I'm basically done with tangs. I love them. Great colors & great personalities but I have horrible luck with them!! I have a standard 180 gallon tank.

What I'm looking for are suggestions on what kind of fish to stock my tank with if I don't have big, beautiful tangs? What do I stock to eat the algae that the tangs would normally eat? Starry blenny, sailfin blenny, lawnmower blenny?

Here's a current picture of my newly aquascaped tank.

 

[Christopher Davis]

Can you tell us why you can't keep them? Do you have other fish? Are tangs only effected? Could you have a diseas in your system you are not aware of?

 

[bknapp]

Look into a fox face (really like the magnificent I have) h they're good sized and eat algae.

 

[Corey D]

Can you tell us why you can't keep them? Do you have other fish? Are tangs only effected? Could you have a diseas in your system you are not aware of?

I QT'ed all fish with prazipro & then with copper. Everything was going good in my display for a month & then out of the blue, tangs were covered in ich. Nothing was added to the tank. All params are in the proper ranges & all fish were eating like champs. I then come home one day to find my Achilles, Kole, starry blenny & one sunburst anthias dead. I completely broke down the display & caught all fish, put in an emergency TTM QT with prazipro. Ammonia stayed super low & I lost my melanarus wrasse, 3 sunburst anthias, purple firefish, lieutenant tang, & royal gramma.

 

[bknapp]

Ouch. Sorry for your losses.

 

[Christopher Davis]

I QT'ed all fish with prazipro & then with copper. Everything was going good in my display for a month & then out of the blue, tangs were covered in ich. Nothing was added to the tank. All params are in the proper ranges & all fish were eating like champs. I then come home one day to find my Achilles, Kole, starry blenny & one sunburst anthias dead. I completely broke down the display & caught all fish, put in an emergency TTM QT with prazipro. Ammonia stayed super low & I lost my melanarus wrasse, 3 sunburst anthias, purple firefish, lieutenant tang, & royal gramma.

IMO you didn't need to break down the tank, remember ick is always present in an aquarium. Sorry for your losses I wonder if you shouldn't also post this into the disease forum to understand what happened better maybe someone can help you there in regards to that! @Humblefish

 

[Corey D]

IMO you didn't need to break down the tank, remember ick is always present in an aquarium. Sorry for your losses I wonder if you shouldn't also post this into the disease forum to understand what happened better maybe someone can help you there in regards to that! @Humblefish

I mainly broke it down because of how fast it was ravaging through my fish! I didn't want to lose any more. I couldn't just sit back & watch them all die. & I like my new scape much better than the old scape anyways. So there's some type of positive to the situation.

 

[bknapp]

IMO you didn't need to break down the tank, remember ick is always present in an aquarium.

I'm sorry but that's just not true.

 

[rmhlll]

IMO tangs are jerks. Love them, but they have made it difficult for me to make additions (fish) to my DT In the past.

I currently don't have any tangs. Other than a clean up crew, I currently have a bicolor Foxface and a starry Bleeny. I had a long spine sea urchin in my DT up until a week ago. He eat my cats eye pally frag, so now he's in the (sump) dungeon. That combination has been very effective for me on algae control, we'll see what happens without the urchin. But anyway, I highly recommend a foxface, they are very docile and active grazers.

 

[Labridaedicted]

If it was fast, it could have been velvet. That stuff is nasty...

Anyways, +1 to the foxface idea above. Those things are like vacuums for algae. I always found that blennies never ate enough algae to make an appreciable difference in algae amounts. I would encourage you to control your age through nutrient control rather that fish, though. Large herbivores are usually pigs and contribute more to creating algae than they remove. Just my experience with them, though. I'm sure there are others that may have different experiences, though.

 

[Corey D]

I was concerned about it being velvet, the Achilles had some weird looking places on him when I found him dead. Also the speed at which it happened had me thinking velvet. I just don't know where it would've came from.

I thought I've read that foxface would possibly nip lps & softies?

I also know the best way to control algae is with nutrient export but I don't think it's a bad idea to have a fish or 2 that will graze if it shows up.

 

[rmhlll]

If it was fast, it could have been velvet. That stuff is nasty...

Anyways, +1 to the foxface idea above. Those things are like vacuums for algae. I always found that blennies never ate enough algae to make an appreciable difference in algae amounts. I would encourage you to control your age through nutrient control rather that fish, though. Large herbivores are usually pigs and contribute more to creating algae than they remove. Just my experience with them, though. I'm sure there are others that may have different experiences, though.

Absolutely, +1

Proper maintenance, ie - water changes, a properly sized ( or oversized) skimmer, and phosphate control (GFO), if needed.

 

[rmhlll]

I was concerned about it being velvet, the Achilles had some weird looking places on him when I found him dead. Also the speed at which it happened had me thinking velvet. I just don't know where it would've came from.

I thought I've read that foxface would possibly nip lps & softies?

I also know the best way to control algae is with nutrient export but I don't think it's a bad idea to have a fish or 2 that will graze if it shows up.

The foxface that I have now is my first. He resides with zoas, pallys, ricordea mushrooms, a torch, frogspawn, toadstool, and acans. He has been a model citizen for the last 6 months that I've had him. He is also well fed. However, i do understand your concern. I read the same thing in my research before I purchased one.

 

[Corey D]

The foxface that I have now is my first. He resides with zoas, pallys, ricordea mushrooms, a torch, frogspawn, toadstool, and acans. He has been a model citizen for the last 6 months that I've had him. He is also well fed. However, i do understand your concern. I read the same thing in my research before I purchased one.

Which foxface did you pick up? I wonder if a certain subspecies of foxface are better than others?

 

[Christopher Davis]

How long did you quarantine your tangs?

 

[rmhlll]

Which foxface did you pick up? I wonder if a certain subspecies of foxface are better than others?

I cant answer that question, but mine is a bicolor foxface. Here's a (bad) picture. Sorry my blues are on now. I picked it up when I was battling a hair algae outbreak. I'm a fan.

 

[baktabiznis]

How long did you quarantine your tangs?

Yeah that was my next question. I just got back into the hobby and love tangs but always feel they were the root of my fish dieing.

 

[tyler1503]

Rabbitfish are awesome! Some get pretty big which would be nice in a 180 and have really nice colours.
A zebra eel would be rad too!

 

[Christopher Davis]

Yeah that was my next question. I just got into he hobby and live tangs but always feel they were the root of my fish dieing.

Tangs are really prone to ich what I meant by ich being present in an aquarium is, unless you Qt all fish for at least 6-8 weeks ick can still get intoyour tank due to the life cycle of the disease. A healthy fish can still have ich to a small degree, it makes itself present or known when the fish is sick or stressed and cannot fight it off. Most fish build up an immune system to fight it off.

But if any other fish were added regardless of being Qt or not it's the duration here that's important. I know that Achilles tangs are difficult fish as it is to keep from experience. Just trying to help is all.

In regards to the weird blotches on the Achilles tang it is very suspect of velvet as I'm sure you know comes on fast. Velvet is a whole different ball game and there are absolute horror stories on this website to prove that. If you noticed your fish scratching and itching and swimming into a powerhead or source of current and breathing heavy then I would almost certainly say velvet. Only way to cure velvet is to let the tank go fallow for at least 3 months.

 

[4FordFamily]

My reef tank is almost exclusively tangs. They are a lot of work but it sounds like you had velvet. That'll kill any fish.

Also, rabbit fish aren't any hardier than tangs by and large. Today's hobby tends to lead to lots of dead fish without proper qt. I've been unlucky before as well. For me, i didn't test copper enough and it led to the levels swinging and QT not being effective. Another time I cross contaminated with nets/my arm with known ich management tanks in my possession.

Keep your head up, learn from your mistakes

To answer your original question, a wrasse tank is always neat!