Algae eater recommendations?

[sam180]

I'm looking for a good algae eater for my 75g community tank to get rid of the ugly brown algae forming. I was originally looking at getting a school of 4-6 oto's but after reading about how fragile they are, I am now leaning towards a plecostomus. I don't, however, want a species that grows over 6" as that would be too big for my tank. My pH is roughly 7.6, temp is currently 84° thanks to the ridiculous Summer heat out here in California. I normally try to keep it around 82°. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Current stock:

Skirt Tetra x 10
Platy x 6
Guppy x 4
Botia Kubotai (polka dot) Loach x 6
Angelfish x 2

 

[Plantaholic]

Snails, Plecos poop to much!

 

[sam180]

Snails, Plecos poop to much!

My loaches wouldn't let them live through the night lol.

 

[Coursair]

If this is a new tank and the Algae is soft it's probably just Diatoms. Once the excess Silica is gone the Diatoms will disappear as well.

http://www.aquascapingworld.com/algaepedia/full_view_algae.php?item_id=79

It's better to find out what kind of Algae you have and fix the issue, rather than throwing fish at it.

Diatoms go away on their own in a balanced clean tank.


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[sam180]

If this is a new tank and the Algae is soft it's probably just Diatoms. Once the excess Silica is gone the Diatoms will disappear as well.

Brown Diatom Algae

It's better to find out what kind of Algae you have and fix the issue, rather than throwing fish at it.

Diatoms go away on their own in a balanced clean tank.


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Yeah, that sounds exactly like what I have. I've been doing water changes, of course, but it hasn't helped to reduce it. In fact, it's progressively getting worse. For now, it's only on a couple of my decor pieces, so I'll just take an old tooth brush to it. Thanks for the heads up, learned something new lol.

 

[JohnRoscoe]

I'm happy with my small school of Pygmy Corys. They do a good job cleaning up and are a lot more active than a plecostamus.


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[sam180]

I'm happy with my small school of Pygmy Corys. They do a good job cleaning up and are a lot more active than a plecostamus.


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Ah, I didn't know that corys eat algae.

 

[Nuclear Queen]

Corys tend to eat debris and leftovers from soft substrate. Otos are probably your best bet - they are absolutely wonderful. Plecos are actually NOT good for algae eating, despite popular belief.
Siamese Algae Eaters get to be 6" and you could have two in a tank as big as yours! They enjoy wafers more than side-of-tank algae, in my experience, so I still recommended Otos! Extremely large snails may be able to withstand your loaches, but they also might be too scared to come out of their shell and subsequently starve to death.
If your Angelfish don't bother your tetras, I can't imagine having any problem with Otos. I've never known them to be fragile. I had one that would stand up to an aggressive betta, and was fine through temp fluctuations.

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[sam180]

Corys tend to eat debris and leftovers from soft substrate. Otos are probably your best bet - they are absolutely wonderful. Plecos are actually NOT good for algae eating, despite popular belief.
Siamese Algae Eaters get to be 6" and you could have two in a tank as big as yours! They enjoy wafers more than side-of-tank algae, in my experience, so I still recommended Otos! Extremely large snails may be able to withstand your loaches, but they also might be too scared to come out of their shell and subsequently starve to death.
If your Angelfish don't bother your tetras, I can't imagine having any problem with Otos. I've never known them to be fragile. I had one that would stand up to an aggressive betta, and was fine through temp fluctuations.

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Yeah I like otos better, tbh, but just hearing a lot of horror stories of them having a high death rate when moved to a new tank. I may still give them a try. I don't want them just for algae control, although that is a huge plus. I really like them and think they would mesh well with my loaches.

As for the tetras and angels, the tetras are 1.5 - 2x the size of the angels at the moment. The tetras were harassing them a little the day I put the angels in - probably just to establish dominance or let them know where their claimed area of the tank is - but now it's stopped and everyone gets along.

 

[Hubert90]

Yeah I like otos better, tbh, but just hearing a lot of horror stories of them having a high death rate when moved to a new tank. I may still give them a try. I don't want them just for algae control, although that is a huge plus. I really like them and think they would mesh well with my loaches.



As for the tetras and angels, the tetras are 1.5 - 2x the size of the angels at the moment. The tetras were harassing them a little the day I put the angels in - probably just to establish dominance or let them know where their claimed area of the tank is - but now it's stopped and everyone gets along.

Ya, with ottos I recommend the drip acclimation method. It's what I do with all my fish.

If you are to get SAE, just get one. And don't feed it too much algae wafers to encourage them eating algae. They do get lazy when they get older though, so buy them when they are juveniles.


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