Absolute best glass-cleaning/algae-eating fish species - please vote

:headbang2:Mag float... don't try to have a fish with a mind smaler than a lint ball solve a problem that you can't figure out. SCRUB.

I don't have theexperience to know whether I agree, but that's a brilliant quote!
 
My common pleco is totally the best sucker I have had, sometimes I put him in my other tanks to clean the glass in there too. He is really boring, but does his job!

What snails are we talking about? I have some major green spots in my 50g plante shrimp tank.
 
Fishkeeper71 said:
Well I agree Plecos and Chinese algae eaters along with snails do the work fairly well. However none are needed unless you are raising them. Most people I know always say buy a pleco and or algae eaters to keep the algae away. Algae can be kept in check and is usually a sign of problems in your bio system and should raise alarms unless your intentionally allowing it for certain fish species. But hands down Plecos seem to the best job but they tend to get too big especially if they have alot to eat, but in 30+ aquaria that is usually no prob.
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I dont get it, so, how to you grow plants and not algae? I have good spectrum lights, and do weekly water changes, I still get little green specks on the glass
 
I can rank them all at the very bottom of *any* list for how to remove/prevent/clean algae.

I have Otos, ghost shrimp, apple snails, ramshorns, and MTS's in my 10g; Still visible algae, especially green-spot.

I have Two BN Plecos, one Clown Pleco, and a bunch of MTS in my 40g, still visible algae growing in a few select spots, never touched by the inhabitants.

Wanna get rid of algae? Manual removal is the best way.
 
Finley said:
Hello

In your experience, which fish species has done the best job of cleaning fine algae off the glass of your aquarium?

Is there such a thing as a species which keeps tank glass so clean that it's no longer necessary to use a mechanical algae cleaner?

Thanks :)
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For cleaning fine algae - if it's the soft biofilm you are speaking of, otos and bristlenose plecos will clean the glass. When I do a water change, I still wipe my glass in all my tanks down weekly with a soft towel. even with the otos and BN then I know all of the glass is clean. If you have soft green algae growing on the glass or diatoms, otos would like that too. If you're talking about the hard green spot algae which grows from too much bright light....nothing will eat that. I get a tiny spots of this on my discus tank from some direct sunlight at certain times of the year and that needs to be scraped off. Diatoms are a fact of life in my low tech tanks and have been for years and years. I have no other algae problems. I think it is probaby from phosphates in the city water. I would rather use otos or bristlenose to eat them than have to continue to buy or add a phosphate removing product to my tanks. It is definitely a more economical long-term solution. With the diatoms, I have found that otos can eat the diatoms off of the narrow crypt leaves where the BN get too heavy to do that as they grow. In any case, it's good tank hygiene to wipe the glass down with each water change rather than depend on a fish to clean it as good as you.
 
I don't really know, but I have a 20g long with about a billion pond snails and cherry shrimp that has never seen a speck of algae. I now also have ramshorns in there too.

On the other hand, my tank with L387 plecos (omnivorous) has to be cleaned of algae every week. That isn't surprising because the L387s tend towards the carnivorous side and never come out during the day. In fact, they barely come out at night. 'Course I also have about 5 pond snails and about a 100+ mts in there now too, so that may change.
 
A million pond snails will keep your glass spotless. I never realized just how clean they were keeping it until I put loaches in the tank and they ate all the snails. Now the tank is green.
 
sed03f said:
I dont get it, so, how to you grow plants and not algae? I have good spectrum lights, and do weekly water changes, I still get little green specks on the glass
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Every healthy tank will have algae in it, whether you see it or not depends on the tank conditions. Algae are a result of too much phosphorus and nitrogen in the water & as a result of high amounts of fish and food waste which raises your nitrates that along with heavy lighting will cause what we commonly refer to as an outbreak. No matter what we always have algae in our Aquariums most times it can't be seen that is when things are working right.

Most people think algae is a plant but is in reality a microscopic organism that lives by very similar means. Some plants consume more algae producing nutrients than others a few examples are :
Hygrophila difformis, Hygrophila polysperma. Water sprite, anacharis, hornwort.

The most common cause of algae being rampant as stated above can reduced significantly by making sure there is a more plants to fish ratio in your aquarium. A good gravel cleaning minimum 1 time per week will greatly help also make sure to reduce the amount of food offered. By no means can we avoid algae but we can reduce the visible ache form it and save our elbows some by less scraping which also stresses your fish.
 
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