Silent Stocking

[Satsumas]

I have a 25 gallon with a 96W CF and i have a pair of amano shrimp in the tank at the moment. I chose these as i have to introduce fish very slowly because of the amount of light. Anyway i have quite a bit of algae in there because of a delay with my C02 and i was hoping to get some oto's in there sometime next week to help combat the algae.

In my other tank however i have a BN pleco, she could do with a bigger tank and it would ease the biolad so i had been thinking about moving her in the future.
In the beginning i was planning to add her last but recently i have seen algae growing all over the HC and therefore slowing down its growth rate. I know that pleco's are big waste producers but it would only be 1 fish then i would have a break of at least 2 weeks where no more fish would be added.
Also if she does eat the algae on the HC then i think she'd uproot it, she is pretty much full grown at 3/4" and when she eats she is pretty agressive, well with veg she is anyway.

So would adding the pleco be a good or bad idea considering those issues?

TIA

 

[7Enigma]

I would not add the pleco if you are not dosing ferts AND supplying CO2. That is a serious amount of light you have and CO2 needs to be your primary concern. Until you have the CO2 in place (or are dosing a TON of Excel) I would cut your lighting drastically to only a couple hours a day max.

Adding in more ammonia source (pleco) will only make the algae worse since you are bottomed out on CO2.

 

[Satsumas]

Sorry i didn't say that i now have C02 going and that i am dosing KNO3, KS04 and Flourish 3x a week.

 

[Zezmo]

Ottos probably wont make any visible diference to the algae. The pleco, will help a little, I would toss him in since you have the ferts and CO2 going.

 

[Satsumas]

I think the pleco will help out a lot with the algae, i cant see anything that would cause a problem. If the HC does uproot then i'll just have to plant it again and that will be made easier with most of the algae gone (if she does her job well that is)
I'll do my water change tommorow and then i think i'll try to catch her and put her in.

I have thought that the best way to catch her would be if i put some cucumber in the tank (guaranteed to get her looking around for it) but also put it in the net resting on the bottom.
Then wait for her to find it and start eating and then just slowly ease the net up to the surface.
Good idea or bad?

TIA