Your favorite small algae eater?

are otos too obvious a choice?

shrimp

guppymill said:

I've gone old school and put in a UG filter

Click to expand...

terrible idea, even worse for a heavily planted tank.

lol

Hillies do best in a stream tank set up, temperate water, with a powerhead for plenty of flow. 10g is just not big enough, 20g long would be better. Best algae eaters for a 10g are shrimp and nerite snails. Best algae control is proper tank maintenance and lighting periods. Don't buy a fish just to take care of algae, only buy fish because you want them.

And yeah, I wouldn't do an UGF, especially with a planted tank.

Hillstream loaches like currents as they are usually found in moving water.
for a 10 gal tank all I would recommend would be otos, but I wouldnt recommend any fisg just to eat algae. Otos are best kept in groups, and hard to keep alive (In my experience) and are picky eaters. If the correct type of algae isnt in your tank they wont eat, and I have actually seen some die from not eating. I have 5 otos in a 20 gal tank, and there is lots of algae growing in there. but I still have to feed them some wafers occasionally.

My best advice is to control your algae growth through proper lighting, and fertilization of your plants.

As far as the UGF goes, I wouldnt bother either. A simple sponge filter is better than a UGF IMO