algae in a 2.5 gal hex

[Beth]

I have a friend that has a 2.5 gal hex tank. She has a dwarf gouramie in it. She said she is having a small problem with algae and wanted to get a pleco ! There are no live plants in the tank. Would the commercially available algae destroyer drops help... would it hurt the fish? I don't know what kind of algae it is...haven't seen the tank in a while. What other suggestions do you have?

 

[LMOUTHBASS]

pleco might get to big

maybe like a small otto cat coul do the trick

 

[OrionGirl]

Rather than adding a fish to such a small system, she'd be better off cleaning it more frequently, feeding less, and making sure the water source doesn't have phosphates. A few snails would be helpful as well, without contributing too much to the bio-load. Failing that, oto's will help, but a pleco is totally out of th equestion.

 

[Beth]

I actually suggested that to her but I know ottos are fairly delicate fish... I have two myself. I'm not sure it would last long in her tank . She just has fish for her 3 year old, who doesn't really even care for the thing... she doesn't really put alot into fishkeeping. (I'm very secretly hoping she gets tired of it and gives me the tank ) But I will encourage her as long as she seems remotely interested.

 

[TKOS]

I would definatly say go with a big snail. They are kind of fun to watch and are good at cleaning up the tank of left over food and algea. Of course they do tend to breed a lot, but that also means you will never go without a snail!

 

[Turin Turambar]

Frequent water changes + regular cleansing will mostly do the job.
I wouldn't add any algae-eating fish.