Do you like or dislike the use of snails for algea.

I bought a snail to "control algae" once. If he ate any algae at all, it was algae on the plants that he mowed down to stumps in a matter of hours. He'd eat algae wafers- sometimes two or three a day. Wouldn't touch algae on glass or rocks. But man, he could take down nine bucks worth of plants in no time.

Bristlenose Plecos rock for algae control. I'm growing out two babies for a SA cichlid tank, and they keep the tank nice and tidy. I'm also trying out ghost shrimp, seeing if they help out. Verdict's still out on them helping with algae, but they are fun to watch.

You'll need lots of ghost shrimp to make a dent in algae. Investing in Amano Shrimp may be a better option for the algae. I agree that the shrimp are fun to watch. Nothing like them swimming up and grabbing a flake or pellets and then trying to keep it away from the other fish and shrimp.

Snails and Turtles

Does anyone know anything about water turtles like what do they eat besides algea wafers, fish food, and turtle sticks.
Also, does anyone know where snails come from.
Thanks

Have you tried searching for turtles in this forum? You can even try to use the specific turtle you have in mind like a red ear slider. When older, some of the turles will eat some fish. When I had them in the past I would feed them some greens like peas and lettuce. They are very messy eaters, but I plan on getting some more after I move in March.

Well... Snails come from other snails, of course.

Seriously, if you want snails, you can buy them or find them at the aquarium stores. MTS (Maylasian Trumpet Snails) are good since they burrow in the substrate, eat dead or dying matter, and improve the look of the tank given low numbers. Ramshorn and pond snails mow anything down that they can get their radulas on.

Apple snails and Mystery snails are quite popular. Maybe someone can fill in that area for me.

I like the MTS's, but in my limited experience (10 months) The common or red ramshorns are the algea kings. I haven't tried any of the big snails since they often eat plants, but I can assure you the red rams don't and they will do wonders at keeping reasonable levels of algea in check. The MTS's do O.K. but I find them to be very slow at everything including algea eating. Pond snails are O.K. as well but not as big and therefore they eat less than the red ramshorns. Either way, I do not know how effective they may be with brown algea in particular, the only tank I raise brown algea in is the tank that Ramshorns can't live in due to their flavor.
Dave

Algae is best solved through careful control of the nutrients in a tank. Some algae will always appear but if it gets to a untolerable level it is generally due to too much food in the system.

Pond snails and common ramshorn snails do not eat plants, except for dead leaves. The cellulose matter is too much for them to digest without a little help first. Apple snails and many of the larger snails are well known for their ability to eat plants.

Ghost shrimp are scavengers and do not eat any noticable level of algae. Amano shrimp do munch down a bit but are far more interested in left over flakes of food if those are available.

The smaller plecos like bristlenose and also the otto cats and SAE's are much better at eating algae. But they do come with their own problems. Plecos create a lot of waste and thus contribute to the excess food probelm in the tank which could lead to more algae. Ottos and SAE's could eventually run out of food and need to have their meals supplimented.

Try doing larger weekly water changes and removing any algae from the glass first using a scraper (cheap and easy to buy). With fewer nutrients the algae will grow back much slower.

getting rid of snails

How do you get the numbers down, I have found that my snails reproduced to much and I would like to control their numbers. should I just take them out, if so what can I do with them, right now I don't think I want kill them, they have done nothing wrong nor are sick.

(Also to any one that is in pittsburgh, if you want some I will be glad to let you have some for free, just have to find your way to my place, pm me for info if you want them)

Reduce feeding in the tank and use a gravel vacuum to do a really fine job during weekly water changes.

Occasionally crushing a snail (careful of the hsarp shell) and letting the fish eat it is a nice treat.

Snails will populate to the level of food in the tank.