Algae - Clean it or Eat it?

[Cherry Barb]

In my lovely, now fairly established 20g community tank I have 4-Cherry Barbs, 5-Zebra Danios and 5-spotted Corys. I'm developing a little bit of algae slime on the glass. I'd like to know what some of you guys and gals think would be the best way to deal with this.

Should I just use one of those algae brushes and clean the glass that way? Or, should I invest in a little guy that likes to eat algae? I think I'd like to get a fish that eats this, but I need something that will stay relatively small and it MUST be peaceful. I've pretty much ruled out CAE and flying foxes. So, any ideas, thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Zic]

I personally like to eat the algae in my tank. Especially when you wash it down with spent tank water! Yummmy.

I can't think of anything that will stay small. There may be something that I'm just not aware of. If you just started your tank, it's probably brown algae you have (correct?). This happens to a lot of folks. It will go away after a month or so. If it's green algae, you can cut down the amount of time you have the tank light on.

Anywho, I would just clean the tank once a week.

 

[Guest]

On the glass, you will have to clean it, period. There are good algae eaters out there, but they cannot get everything off the glass. You can get a regular algae brush, or they also sell magnetic glass cleaners (cleaner inside, magnet outside, magnetism holds them together), so you don't have to stick your hand in the tank every time.

 

[Terry]

A good little algae eater is the otocinclus, only grows to about 1.6inch. Another good algae eater is the sucking loach but these vary in differant sizes but i think you are looking about the 6inch mark. (someone will tell me if i'm wrong on that one.)
You will still have to do some algae removal by hand, but you will do that with your general maintanance.

 

[AtodaJ]

How about a SAE? They aren't aggressive like CAE and best of all... they actually eat algae!

 

[Guest]

Otos and SAEs are great, no question. However, You still gotta clean the Glass!!!

 

[Cherry Barb]

Well now, seems I may have overlooked a little something here....After reading a few of these great replies today I did a little research. Turns out I had the wrong kind of light, , so I changed it and I bought a neat little handy dandy scraper/sponge that has a long handle so i don't have to get my hands wet every time I clean.

I am definitely going to look into the SAE. I wasn't aware of that one. By the way, how do I tell the SAE from the CAE? Or is there any similarity at all?

Thank goodness for all my fishy friends! I appreciate the great advice!