Looking for clean up crew

[Howeller]

Hello. I have just setup an 80 gallon turtle tank and am looking for some help with clean up crew for the tank. The tank had been cycled for about 2 years as a planted tank and perameters have been very stable.
I am trying to look at a natural way to control algae like I do in my reef tanks.
The issue I am having now that it is running as a turtle aquarium is that I have an area of intense lighting over the basking area, this mixed with a uvb light means the wood underneath the light is growing some hair algae. I manually remove this every water change but I am looking for a way to constantly remove/eat it as it makes it slippy and hard for the turtles to climb out.
Any clean up crew help for this, anything that goes into the tank needs to be a few inches to be bigger than the turtles head else they will thinks it's lunch.
Any help would be great thanks.

 

[HannahJo]

I have found it difficult to keep water parameters good enough in a turtle tank to keep fish in BUT if you've mastered it and have clean water- I would suggest BN plecos. They don't get as big as common plecos (they only get about 6 inches) so 80G would be okay to have a few. They are pretty lowkey so shouldn't be disturbing the turtle. Be aware, males will fight each other. What temp is your water at? These guys have a pretty decent tolerance- so as long as your not freezing or roasting them, should be okay.
What kind of turtle do you have in there?

 

[Howeller]

I have found it difficult to keep water parameters good enough in a turtle tank to keep fish in BUT if you've mastered it and have clean water- I would suggest BN plecos. They don't get as big as common plecos (they only get about 6 inches) so 80G would be okay to have a few. They are pretty lowkey so shouldn't be disturbing the turtle. Be aware, males will fight each other. What temp is your water at? These guys have a pretty decent tolerance- so as long as your not freezing or roasting them, should be okay.
What kind of turtle do you have in there?

That's good to hear, I will look for some when I'm next at the fish shop. The tank already has some fish in it, mostly mascara barbs and giant danios, the tank is massively over filtered and has large weekly water changes to deal with the turtle mess. I also use RO water on the tank so I can guarantee the water quality going into the tank.
The tanks water sits at 25c or 77f, it currently house a juvenile pink bellied sideneck turtle that will be move into a larger tank when they grow.

 

[HannahJo]

Very cool- I had a red eared slider in a 72G and it was too much to keep up with, so ended up moving him to an outdoor pond.
Good luck with everything.

 

[Howeller]

I ended up buying some Siamese algae eaters for the tank and they were incredible, they nuked all of the algae in 3 days and now have to feed wafers which is fine.
I've found the turtles to be pretty easy to keep on top of, it was just the added light and UV that caused me some issues, but now that is sorted the tank is running smoothly again.
I tried to find a slider or a painted turtle for my tank but they are almost impossible to find in the uk now, I found one breeder that had sold out and wasn't getting more