algae

[funchi777]

i have so much algae, someone suggested to buy an algae eater, i had one years ago that was so ugly it gave me the creeps and it jumped up to get air and it would startle me. are there any pretty ones? i have freshwater, a few glow fish and a few neon tetras.
thanks

 

[King Fisher]

Otocinclus work well. Nerite snails also work well.

 

[goatnad]

Personally I don't think using fish to deal with algae is the best solution. Its better to get to the root cause of the algae. Before we can recommend algae eaters we need to know more about your tank and what type of algae you have. How big is your tank and can you provide any pictures of the algae you are dealing with?

 

[funchi777]

my tank is less than 10gal, it is covered in algae that needs cleaned about every 2 weeks. i have the light on about 16 hours a day, its fresh water

 

[BBradbury]

Algae Eaters

i have so much algae, someone suggested to buy an algae eater, i had one years ago that was so ugly it gave me the creeps and it jumped up to get air and it would startle me. are there any pretty ones? i have freshwater, a few glow fish and a few neon tetras.
thanks

Hello fun...

Any of the species of livebearing fish will do a decent job of controlling algae. Platys, Swordtails and Mollies are all good. But, the best thing is to reduce the amount you feed and to use foods that are low phosphate. Large, weekly water changes of half or even more of the volume of the tank will remove excess nutrients that cause algae to grow.

B

 

[earhtmother]

Less light too if you can will help keep the algae down. If you have it in an area where it gets a decent amount of natural light having the light on 6 hours a day is plenty

 

[Leopardshark20]

I had a similar problem with algae as well. The first thing I would try is leaving the light off for a couple days. This seemed to take care of the problem. You can also buy an algae scrubber to take care of that manually.