Algae Advice

[Mazdaman]

Looking for some suggestions on a cleaner animal (snail, shrimp, fish, etc...) for cleaning the brown algae of glass and decor. I have a 75gal well stocked but can make some changes to allow for any size animal though I prefer smaller to the larger. Any ideas, suggestions, links would be great. Thanks all

 

[QTOFFER]

Oto cats are the only creatures that really eat brown diatom algae. Plecos and snails will accidently wipe it off surfaces as they graze.

The best long term solution for brown algae is simply wiping or rinsing it off things yourself. Fortunately, it easy to remove, and eventually, it goes away on its own.

 

[Mazdaman]

I do the wiping on a regular basis, but it's the plants are tough to clean without removing them from the tank and that isn't all that easy either. Thanks for the reply... I will look into oto cats.

 

[7Enigma]

Mazdaman,

I have 2 (had 3 but one died), they are excellent cleaners, and are really cool to watch as they tend to travel in packs. They are very small, and don't attack other fish, unless they are hungry. With your diatom problem however, they would have a field day, and you wouldn't have to worry about that.

With your size tank, a good 6 or 7 would be perfect, as they would school well in the tank, and do a pretty quick cleanup (depending on how much you have in the tank). I would just like to know what other fish you have in the tank to make sure they don't get eaten due to their small size.

 

[Mazdaman]

I have 5 boesman rainbows and 3 parkinson rainbows, 4 harlequinn rasboras, 5 rummynose tetras, 3 celebs rainbows and 5 odessa barbs. Almost fogot my favs 2 red-linned torpedo barbs. None of them should cause any issues except maybe the parkinsons.