What's a 'good' algae eater for my reef?

[Koty]

Scartella cristata if it's the mediterenian species I am not sure it's reef safe

 

[Jesterrace]

So, I think I need a herbivore to my reef, I'm in a never ending battle of scrubbing rocks and dosing phosphates to keep them in a desired range. I have a 50gl AIO, so I can't have any Tangs. I'm considering a Black Sailfin Blenny, and was wondering what other options I should be considering.

Currently, there is a Pink Streaked Wrasse, a Royal Gramma, a Yellow Wrasse, and a Fairy Wrasse in the tank.

What do you have for corals in the tank?

 

[LuizW13]

What do you have for corals in the tank?

IT's a mixed reef, so there's a bit of almost everything- Soft, LPS, SPS.



I actually placed an order on ReefCleaners for a few different snails and crabs. I'll hold of on herbivore fish for the time being, since they are more of a permanent solution.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

You want a pincushion I have 2 of them and look at their favorite thing to do, its hard to see but its got a large chunk of L.R.. in my other tank I had scratches on the glass I dont remember, I know the glass pretty good. I know it was them.

Anyone want them?

 

[jx.reef]

Love my little fat lawnmower. He’s an absolute eating machine.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Love my little fat lawnmower. He’s an absolute eating machine.

It Eats algae?

 

[jx.reef]

It Eats algae?

Yep, pecks at rocks all day. I know he eats film algae for sure. I’ve never really seen any GHA in the tank so can’t say if he eats that or not.

 

[paulgriffin971]

Don't overlook a couple urchins. Those things are amazing at helping keep the sand, rocks, and glass clean. Help to prevent "future" growth. I'd go with either atlantic pink or minesweepers. (Atlantic pink are cool because they wear the empty hermit and other shells on their head like a hat, then you can remove the shells off the urchin so they don't collect on the sand bed).

If you have a tang or two in there already, the urchins would be what I'd add next. Cheap too. Just be carefull not to over-feed the tangs too much meaty food because they'll fill up on that before they attack the algae.

 

[i cant think]

Manual removal works for me (Screw the blenny, I grabbed a Escenius when the original plan was either an Ember Blenny or a Starry blenny).
I do have snails and Urchins in my larger tank, and probably will grab a tuxedo urchin for my Nano.

Koumansetta hectori! The BEST fish I have ever gotten. Pecks at the rocks eating algae, even eats cyano. Colouration is beautiful too, if you don’t mind having a huge sand barricade in your tank then this fish is by far the best for most algae, I have seen him pick on cyano, GHA, Dinos, Diatoms, the whole lot of “Pest algae”.
Here’s the before in my tank with cyano:

After (Today):

And here’s the hectors goby:

And his den