I would greatly appreciate any input on algea eaters

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Devon Greatwolf

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
28
Location
Map Dot, TN
I would greatly appreciate any input on algea eaters for the following setups. Thanks for your time and thoughts on this!

* 55 gallon: 2 Bosemani Rainbows (M/F); 2 Turquoise Rainbows (M/F); 2 Male Keyholes (Lefty and Dead-Eye); 1 Dwarf Gourami (Cocky); 3 Panda Cories; 2 Albino Cories (Toot and Blow); 1 7" Red Finned Rainbow Shark(Killer);3 Java Fern; 1 round leaf anubias; 1 large bunch of hornwort.

* 30 Gallon B (84dF): Mating Pair of German Blue Rams (Blue-Boy and Girlie); 7 Rasbora Hets; 5 Rummy Nose Tetras; 1 Neon Tetra; 1 broad leaf anubias and 2 narrow leaf anubias (were labeled as mixed anubias at LFS); 2 Java Ferns; fist sized clump of java moss and a small "clump" of hornwort.

* 30-Gallon A: 3 typical Tiger Barbs; 3 Green Tiger Barbs; 1 Amazon Sword; 2 plants which look like A. Swords but were labeled as mixed anubias; and 1 Java Fern.
 
I have red/brown algea in the GBR tank and all tanks have "hard" green algea and hair algea.

Any type of algea eater that would be plant-friendly and work with my current fish.
 
Sounds like you could use almost anything. I always start with pond snails, a catfish/pleco is a good second addition. Your barbs should be helping in that tank, if you feed them a bit less see if they pick at the algae.
 
Ottos, if you can find them, will eat diatom algae. I have a florida flag fish and he hasn't really improved the algae situation in my tank, hehe. Amano shrimp will graze on algae.

All your fish seem to be compatible with "algae" eaters unless you go with some big CAE.
 
Flying Foxes may also become aggressive towards other fish. I recommend SAEs, Ottos, and Nerite Snails as your big algae crew, but other snails and shrimp will graze on algae. Try cutting back on light and feeing in the tanks and see if that helps reduce the algae.
 
I'm not convinced that there is any amount or type of fish you can put in a tank to totally control algae. It takes more work and time, but you are far better off finding the cause and remedying it than trying to simply provide somebody to eat it all up.

Even the best algae eating critters get spoiled on fish food and stop feeding on algae.
 
I am sure the cause of the algae is all the sunlight that floods my home. I live in a mobile home and am having problems finding good blinds to cover most of my windows. I work very hard to keep the glass of my tanks as cleans as possible, the algae is most problematic on my real pants and large driftwood pieces. The fake plants and smaller items are removed monthly and scrubbed. I am not looking for critters to do all the work, just help out a little on the hard to remove/clean and hard to get at spots. Thank you all for your time and attention to this!
 
Personally, I've never had any trouble with Flying Fox, and have recommended them to hundreds of people with absolutely no complaints. If you want them purely for clean-up purposes, get them as small as you can (1.5 inches or so is fine) and they should go nuts on your green and (should any pop up) black algae. Baby Bristle Nose or Peppermints would do well too by the sounds of it ;)
 
My friend bought a pelco called a bulldog pleco, and that thing was a algee monster. They stay alot smaller than a normal pleco.
 
Unless the sunlight is coming in directly through the front you can easily fix the situation with some material covering the other 3 sides. I have live plants like you and want to keep as much light IN the tank as possible and so use mylar on the sides of the tank. This reflects almost all of the light that would normally escape out, and subsequently keeps all the light from outside from getting in. I just used cut up party balloons (the silver ones that hold air for weeks), but you could purchase plain mylar or cover the mylar with another fabric if you don't like the look.

You could also create a curtain for the front which I had also made out of mylar for when you are not viewing the tank. This is perfect since you limit the light in the tank to just what you are supplying, and can easily remove it when you want to view the tank (or after the sun is not as strong). Very simple and effective solution which should quickly remedy your algae situation.

HTH.
 
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