Clean up fish

[Zero Gravitas]

This is an odd question, but I’m looking for a cleanup fish to keep in a 55 gallon tank that’s about a third filled with live rock only. My top off on my display tank drains directly into that tank before it goes into the sump/refugium. Was thinking about putting my sock between the tank with live rock only and my sump instead of between the display tank and my live rock tank, and keeping a bunch of cleanup crew in the live rock tank for my entertainment. The fish would not need to be reef safe.


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[Kensington Reefer]

No one fish will do the entire job

Algae blenny
Yellow or scopa tang
Foxface rabbitfish
Bristletooth tang

Best is to introduce tangs and rabbit at the same time to reduce aggression
In a 55 they should be less than 2.5 inches

If you do it right...they grow
And will outgrow your tank

Also, feed the fish!

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Erin's list is excellent, but I'd add Kole Tang. It's an algae eating machine and stays a lot smaller than other Tangs.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Kole tang is a bristletooth tang

 

[sfsuphysics]

I'd say at 55g you are stuck as far as clean up crews, unless you have a place in mind to donate fish when they outgrow (not a store and public aquariums don't want your cast offs) you should just deal with manual cleaning methods. I'd throw Tomini tang into the list over a Kole, they tend to be a bit smaller in max size and if you wanted one I would only put one in a tank that size. Bristletooths will scrape rocks more so than pick at them,

That said never knew an algae blenny that actually lived up to its name.

 

[rygh]

For fish, that is a great list above.
But at 55G, I would recommend maybe just one tang, then snails more than fish.
Lots of them. And with no coral, mostly big Turbo snails.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Snails help
But they move at a snail’s pace

You have different forms of algae...niches
Therefore you need different types of animals

Nothing does it all
Not even you

 

[treylane]

my purple tang eats all sorts of weird macroalgae that the bristletooths won't touch... so def mix it up!

 

[sfsuphysics]

Absolutely, bristletooths scrape, zebrasoma pick, rabbitfish nibble... unfortunately with a 55g tank you can't get all those niches.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Erin's list is excellent, but I'd add Kole Tang. It's an algae eating machine and stays a lot smaller than other Tangs.

Ya, but it has yellow eyes!

 

[treylane]

Truncatus tangs have way cooler patterns than koles!

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Yeah but my Kole can beat up your Truncatus!