Considering adding some loaches

[1HellerofaGuy]

I'm considering adding a school of loaches to my 55 gallon. My concern is my substrate. I'm using Eco-complete. Is this fine enough for the loaches. I would like for them to help turn the substrate. At the front of my tank where the water column meets the substrate essentially there is quite a lot of algae that I can't get to with the algae scrubber. I was hoping the loaches will help with that problem.

Also how often are you out there with planted tanks dosing fertilizers? I'm using Seachem Flourish, Excel, and Iron. I was dosing the "carbon" daily but it seems to have made the algae worse. So now I'm consider running CO2 rather than the liquid carbon.

 

[AliSab]

Eco complete is a soil type substrate isn't it? I use flourite sand and my loaches are happy with it.

Do some good research in to the type of Loach you want. I got a school of yoyos with the same idea as yours (actually it's part of the reason I switched to sand... So they could dig around in it..) and what I've observed is that this particular Loach doesn't care for playing in the sand.

Flourish excel of put in high doses will get rid of algae. What is your lighting like? Lots of excess light usually means lots of algae. I use a high dose of excel and have never had a problem with algae before, and I'm running a double ballast lighting fixture with two t8 advertised for growth and colour.

 

[Fresh2o]

Not sure if loaches are appropriate for dealing with algae in the manner that you have described. As for issues with loaches' barbels with EcoComplete, I've read that it is fine though sand is almost always preferred.
I have a Planted tank and switched from using a combo of Seachem Flourish Comprehensive + API Leaf Zone to Green Leaf Aquariums' PPS-Pro System (its a set of dry fertilizers you mix with water). Its is dosed daily and is quite economical. I occasionally use Seachem Excel for spot treating black beard algae. It is a "carbon source" for plants (though that may be up in the air) and it will not make an algae situation worse. I started off with DIY yeast based CO2 and then moved on to a pressurized setup.
As for the algae on the glass below the substrate line, use an old credit card to scrape it off.

 

[toddnbecka]

A bristlenose Ancistrus would be the best bet for cleaning up algae.

 

[1HellerofaGuy]

A bristlenose Ancistrus would be the best bet for cleaning up algae.

Is that a type of pleco?

 

[1HellerofaGuy]

Eco complete is a soil type substrate isn't it? I use flourite sand and my loaches are happy with it.

Do some good research in to the type of Loach you want. I got a school of yoyos with the same idea as yours (actually it's part of the reason I switched to sand... So they could dig around in it..) and what I've observed is that this particular Loach doesn't care for playing in the sand.

Flourish excel of put in high doses will get rid of algae. What is your lighting like? Lots of excess light usually means lots of algae. I use a high dose of excel and have never had a problem with algae before, and I'm running a double ballast lighting fixture with two t8 advertised for growth and colour.

My light is fairly low. I'm using a Finnex I believe it's called a Stingray. I had considered adding a Finnex 24 planted +

 

[1HellerofaGuy]

Eco complete is a soil type substrate isn't it? I use flourite sand and my loaches are happy with it.

Do some good research in to the type of Loach you want. I got a school of yoyos with the same idea as yours (actually it's part of the reason I switched to sand... So they could dig around in it..) and what I've observed is that this particular Loach doesn't care for playing in the sand.

Flourish excel of put in high doses will get rid of algae. What is your lighting like? Lots of excess light usually means lots of algae. I use a high dose of excel and have never had a problem with algae before, and I'm running a double ballast lighting fixture with two t8 advertised for growth and colour.

How high a dose of Excel are you using. I have Excel I'll try dosing that to rid of some of the algae growth