glass cleaning

[eldo1998]

Good afternoon everyone. My question is this. One of the guys at my lfs told me that I shouldn't clean off the back glass of my aquarium. He said that the algae that grows there will be good for the environment and for my fish. Are there any advantages of doing this?

[Ant329]

Buy a pleco if you want it clear..

[paulace2372]

What kind of tank are you talking about? - Freshwater or Saltwater?

[meegosh]

I use razor blades to scrape my glass almost on a weekly basis. Your algae eaters will find enough on your decor/plants and substrate.

[LyndaB]

I don't remove it. I have mystery snails that clean it off in one tank, otos in another and in the third tank, the african featherfin and the fish nibble on it.

Personally, I think if your algae is that bad, you might have a problem in your tank, be it fertilizing too much, too much light, etc. Even before I had "algae eaters", I didn't have to rub it down more than once every other month or so.

[adadkins1]

I agree with Lynda, you should try to figure out what the root cause of the excess algae is. A small amount of algae is inevitable in a planted aquarium IMO. This small amount can be kept to a minimum with algae eaters, but they are not a remedy to the problem.