Diatoms not going away

[Ponch]

Tank set up in early Dec and saw them first popup in February. I have 26G with sand substrate. I hear the cause is silicates and since they have not cleared up on their own I suppose that silicates are in the my city water or sand, neither of which I can do much about. That said I'd love to get a crew of Otos to help with the ongoing algae clean-up effort. But I hear bristle nose plecos can work for this too. I think I'd prefer the Otos as they are cuter and don't require driftwood..

How many Otos could I fit in this fully cycled tank?

Current inhabitants:
-5 mollies
-9 neon tetras

Filtration:
Aqeon 30
4x4 sponge filter

I hear they are big poopers. What wold add more bio load, 3-5 Otos or one bristle nose pleco? Thanks!

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I'd get the Otos they don't have as high a bioload as plecos. I've read that plecos are heavy waste producers. I had issues with diatoms in my new tank that didn't go away. I rubbed off as much as I could but my Otos certainly took care of the rest. I'd get 3 or 4 in your tank.

 

[Daxhua]

My single oto made short work of my 54gal full of diatoms in just three days.

 

[Ponch]

My single oto made short work of my 54gal full of diatoms in just three days.

Wow thats a lot of ground for a single Oto to cover. Do you feed your single Oto anything besides algae from the tank? I wonder if my tanks diatom production could keep up with the needs of the Otos?

 

[Ponch]

I'd get the Otos they don't have as high a bioload as plecos. I've read that plecos are heavy waste producers. I had issues with diatoms in my new tank that didn't go away. I rubbed off as much as I could but my Otos certainly took care of the rest. I'd get 3 or 4 in your tank.

I'd love to get 3 or 4! Any reputable Oto sellers on AA that you guys know of?

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I'm unaware of breeders here on AA. I've read that Otos can be tough to breed. I picked mine up at Petsmart on sale for a dollar each. The LFS by my place sells them for three bucks.

 

[Daxhua]

Wow thats a lot of ground for a single Oto to cover. Do you feed your single Oto anything besides algae from the tank? I wonder if my tanks diatom production could keep up with the needs of the Otos?

I still worry about him getting enough food, he won't touch any type of veggies or wafers I give him. It's been almost five months and there's almost no visible algae in my tank I have no idea how his stay so fat. That's part of the reason why I haven't gotten him any buddies, I'm not sure there's enough algae to keep them all happy.