jojo314519

I went to radio shack to get my supplies for the battery box, but had trouble finding the right capacitor. I could not find a 1 micro farad capacitor that is cylinder shaped like in the photos. I did find a 1 micro farad Tantalum capacitor. It is smaller than the pictured one and is egg shaped on top with the two leads coming out the same direction. Is this an acceptable alternative? I did some quick research on tantalum capacitors and it seems the are more efficient for some reasons i dont understand. It also seemed because they are more efficient the farad rating is different. If anyone can help my understand this that would be great. Thanks in advance.