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It sounds like diatoms. They feed off of silicates (can come from source water or sand). Are you using RO/DI water? Is your tank fairly new? It usually starves itself out if it's just the sand w/ silicates causing the problems. Otherwise, check your water and make sure you're not introducing unneeded nutrients to feed the diatoms.
Is it a new tank? Diatoms are almost guaranteed to wreak havoc on a new tank while it stabalizes.. just don't overfeed and keep up with water changes and it should disappear
Umm... Are you hiding all the live rock in the sump? To keep a healthy tank your should try and get atleast .75-2 lbs per gallon and those are definetly diatoms.. just keep up with the water changes and maybe think about running a type phophate/silcate sponge to prevent it from happening again
Live rock isn't an a absolute necessity as long as you have good filtration. Some people like the more sparse look of a fish-only tank, and while I do understand that, I would add something (anything) for the fish to hide behind when they're scared.
Get some live rock! It looks awesome and give your tang someplace to hide. My tang hid a lot at first but he/she comes out all the time now that there's lots of rock. I have a tomini tang.
Dont get a fish to fix a problem. Its natural, i dont really see the problem with it. The ocean floor isnt perfectly white and clean so im not sure how your tank could be unless you overturned the sand every day and siphoned crud out all the time.
More hiding places=less they hide. They'll get more stressed and feel vulnerable when there's very few hiding spots. Pretty much what other people have been saying.