Fish to control algae

[astrong]

That looks like Derbesia from the photo. About as bad as Bryopsis. If left unchecked it will overgrow the aquarium.

You need algae eaters and lots of them. In the last photo I noticed an Astrea snail chomping away at the Derbesia. They do a great job but you need about 75-100 of them. Also good are the tangs, esp Zebrasoma and Naso, and of course my favorite, the Rabbitfish. Naso's get too big for that tank so stick to Yellows, Purples, Powder Browns, etc. Kole tangs prefer shorter filamentous algaes and will be less efective unless you constantly trim the algae to get it the right length for them. Lawnmower blennies have a bad habit of dying after they run out of their favorite algae. Rabbitfish also do a good job.

Another option for isolated algae occurances is to take the offending rock and throw it in the front yard. This seems to work pretty well, assuming theres nothing attached to the rock you like or can't frag first.

Of course you need to check Phosphate and Nitrate levels, both should be as close to zero as possible. (Nitrate <5ppm, Phosphate <0.2ppm.) You can also drip Kalk to raise pH and remove some Phosphates. Also make sure your KH is 12-15, and you have have strong flow from your recently cleaned power heads. This favors high pH and high ORP, algae likes neither.

I apologize in advance to any phycologists out there, but I say we kill this stuff...

[Instar]

What Matt said. Forget about tangs. Thats the last fish to go in there. Foxface/rabbits are good but I would QT them in a separate tank first if
you decide on that. Most of them look pretty beat up when they come in and unless they are all healed up and over being totally freaked out
over shipping, you're likely to have ick troubles.
There's a couple good lfs in Austin. Michael at Austin Aquariums should be able to get some of the mexican turbos for you. They are big round snails,
not the cone shaped astreas. They eat a little more than the astreas and they can be a little clumbsy at times.

[btacker]

Thanks. Sarah checked at AquaTech, and they don't have any so I will check over at AA. Unfortunately this rock has lots of good stuff so I have to keep it. It has some really nice yellow and pink sponge and a huge green ric on it. I might could do with out the green mushroom rock. Anyone want to trade or buy a green mushroom rock

Thanks for the advice. I'm definately getting a rabbit fish. I really like the way they look and hopefully they will help out.