Puffer mess control

[Sno]

hey i have about a 3" porcupine puffer that im about to move from a small 20 gallon to his new 170G + tank with sump.

In the 20G tank he has been alone for the 7 months or more ive had him from when he was about 1". in this small tank his messy eating has proved to be very difficult to maintain the water conditions, his food such as mysis and muscle chunks he shredds up, and are literally impossible to remove from tank as they are so small, and it has obviously caused me problems along with the tank being in direct sunlight durinhg the summer (rookie Error) i had algae problems galore with green hair, green bubble and aiptasia.

Question - i know shrimp or any other type of clean up crew would become dinner, however when i move him into the other tank i want to have introduced some other kind of fish or something that can help with the messy dropped uneaten food and algae that will not become a snack. what do other marine puffer owners suggest?

i feel that any kind of introducton of clean up crew or crab would definately become a feast in his current tank as he has been alone in it for over half a year therefore would have become very territorial and its a only tiny tank!


what do you guys use or have in your puffer tanks to control the uneaten foods or algae problems that you encounter, he seems docile most of the time however when he is hungry he glides left and right along the glass like a nutter, splashing with his fins and spitting out of the top whilst feeding and snapping at his food even on the spoon i dip his food in with he jumps out about an inch out of the water and grabs onto the spoon like he hasnt eaten for weeks! this is obviously what is worrying me about adding fish with him in the new tank.


Id love to add some fish and starfish to the tank as the family would like to see a variety of fish in their and everyone thinks Im crazy for getting all of the equipment and tank just for one fish!

[DRRT]

there is a small possibility that the large red hermit crabs might survive. i personally don't like them, but for a while they might work.

really, once you've got the big tank set up, it's gonna all come down to...
WATER CHANGES!

yipee. if you're looking to simply control algae, you could get some sort of grazer like one of the slightly smaller tangs

[Pufferpunk]

Mine lasted a couple of months.

[El Scorpio]

I have a sleeper goby in with my toby pufferfish. They get along well, although I don't really know how a porc would feel about one. The goby is good at sifting the sand, keeping it stirred up which inhibits algae growth, and he also eats all the leftover food that my toby doesn't get to.

[stangd1909]

Make sure you get one hell of a skimmer. They help lot...

[Sno]

Thanks guys I'm going to definately try maybe 1 or 2 different types of tang in their, i'll see how i get on and anything else i give a little try but he does seem abit greedy so hoping nothing will get munched up. Ive got a TMC v2 1000 skimmer in me sump i'm hoping that'll be okay.