The best algae cleaner for your tank

[lampro]

Im just wondering whats your go to algae eaters for your planted tank that wont affect your aquascape.
heres my:
otto catfish
amano shrimps
nerite snails

would you keep bushy nose pleco or siamese algae eater? also golden algae eater


I use the JC&P light from Amazon 28" for $32

 

[Autumnsky]

First off I would never keep a Chinese Algae Eater, They are aggressive as they age and will suck on fish causing injury and can lead to infection. Wanted to put that out there!

Mostly I just scrap glass and don't use too powerful of lighting and am happy. Amano shrimp have been seen to just clean up algae on plants when not over fed. Mystery snails do a nice job of cleaning. And I always keep Rams horns but both because I really enjoy having them.

What size (gallons) is your tank? What do you keep there, or intend to keep there?

Otos are great little guys but can be a little more care to get oriented to the tank, sometimes lose some. They can starve in some tanks if not really fed specifically, unless you have sufficient algae. Also some times why the 5 Otos might end up being 2 left in a tank over time with out enough food (same kind of situation with Nerite snails). In the long run they seem to be pretty hardy tank members.

There are a number of slightly different varieties of Otos available.

So to conclude, I would use different inhabitants based upon tank size and or stock so can't specifically pinpoint until knowing that!

 

[earhtmother]

Autumnsky I think you misread, he said *Siamese* Algae eater which is a GREAT fish friendly algae eater as long as it doesn't have too much *other* food to eat and you realize it can get to 4-5" long and 1+" around. Had a trio clean off the blackcrap on the rocks in my 125g Krib tank that hadn't been their original colour in months

 

[Autumnsky]

Siamese and Flying fox = good in appropriate sized tank. <3 Have 2 SAE presently

Golden Algae eater aka Chinese Golden Algae eater = bad for community tank

OP first post 3/4 way down...

"would you keep bushy nose pleco or siamese algae eater? also golden algae eater"

 

[earhtmother]

Siamese and Flying fox = good in appropriate sized tank. <3 Have 2 SAE presently

Golden Algae eater aka Chinese Golden Algae eater = bad for community tank

OP first post 3/4 way down...

"would you keep bushy nose pleco or siamese algae eater? also golden algae eater"

My apologies I TOTALLY missed that statement. However *slightly* in my defense not everyone knows that a golden algae eater IS a Chinese Algae Eater and perhaps stating this first **might** have been helpful, it would certainly have made me reread the post and seen the original reference. Again my sincerest apologies for jumping down your throat I'm just too used to people using Chinese & Siamese interchangeably in regards to algae eaters. I should have known better when you were the author.[emoji37]

 

[BBradbury]

Algae Control

Im just wondering whats your go to algae eaters for your planted tank that wont affect your aquascape.
heres my:
otto catfish
amano shrimps
nerite snails

would you keep bushy nose pleco or siamese algae eater? also golden algae eater


I use the JC&P light from Amazon 28" for $32

Hello Iam...

All Livebearing fish like algae. But, fish and snails won't make much of a dent in it. You have to keep the tank water clean with large, weekly water changes and feed your fish sparingly. A hungry fish is generally a healthy fish and if there's very little nitrogen in the water, the algae has no food source, so it doesn't get out of control.

B

 

[Autumnsky]

My apologies I TOTALLY missed that statement. However *slightly* in my defense not everyone knows that a golden algae eater IS a Chinese Algae Eater and perhaps stating this first **might** have been helpful, it would certainly have made me reread the post and seen the original reference. Again my sincerest apologies for jumping down your throat I'm just too used to people using Chinese & Siamese interchangeably in regards to algae eaters. I should have known better when you were the author.[emoji37]

No worries, I had read it several times to try and address the majority of critters. Always learning on the journey.

Mainly just wanted to point out, that Chinese algae eaters or Golden Algae eaters do not have a place in the majority of tanks, especially a community peaceful tank and the average fish store employees don't really know what they do. Like a devil fish. Strong feelings about it, lol.

 

[earhtmother]

Me too, especially as I don't think I have EVER heard an LFS employee address the issues with this fish in a community tank. Like Plecos they are fish that needs to be reseached before buying and since they don't ever label the *golden* as a CAE the problem is just compounded