Algae control species

Hi all

What fish can you reccommend for helping with algae control? Are Plecos effective with this? As mentioned I am busy stocking a 180 liter planted setup and plan to keep some community fish. Also want to have some nice catfish (small).

Are there any species of community fish that are also good with algae control or that at least can help with it?

I dont want to sit with a huge pleco in a year or two...

 

I would say Shrimps but they are blacklisted, snails may eat plants and over populate your tank. how about reducing your lengh of light exposure with a timer? algue needs 4 hours of light to grow so if you have a timer only letting the light burn no more than 4 hours and then switch off with a 2nd 4 hour cycle later the algue will strugle because of the lack of light. just an idea?

 

Bristlenose pleco's or siamese algae eaters

 

I "liberated" my wife's timer that she uses for our slow cooker so that is a good option. What effect wil this have on the other plants???

 

Thanks Marc

how big does the brittle nose get?

 

Plants need a minimum 5 hour lighting period so only receiving 4 hours at a time wont work nicely. Every tanks needs a couple of SAE and 1 or 2 Bristle nose Ancistrus plecos or some Ottos.

 

i would recommend a couple otocinclus, they are small peaceful sucker fish with a veracious appetite for algae, and they will not eat your other plants in the tank. while plecos are also good, they can be selective as to the types of algae they eat and can grow to huge sizes. Siamese algae eaters only eat algae as juveniles, and as adults eat very little if any, and can grow up to become quite territorial and aggressive towards your other fish. they shouldnt harm the other fish but its annoying to watch the others get chased around by these, so i would nt recommend them.

otos are awesome little fish, get em in there!!!

 

Any idea who stocks them?

 

that's the whole thing the lights will do two 4 hour cycles a day, my friend is doing it and if I look at his tank I beg to differ about it being bad for plants he has one of the nicest planted tanks at PEAS.

 

Cool man I just read that plants need a minimum period of 5 hours so sure if it gets 8 hours in total all will be well.

 

Petstop do have them now and then they are one of the sponsors speak to Mark he is the Main dude their.

 

My SAE group are always busy cleaning the plants I got 6 of them in my 575 liter tank and they are the best cleaning crew around. Just need to get myself a BN pleco will probably get one next weekend. Struggling to find nice big ones the smaller ones dont always make it. Looking for one around 8-9cm hope I can find one

 

not very big around 10cm - 13cm depending

 

Thanks everyone

While we are on the subject of plants - when do you start adding plant supplements to a new aquarium?

I have an Aquasoil substrate, will this have enough nutrients for a while or does it work like my veggie garden that needs compst etc from the word go?

 

You must not dose for the first 4 -6 weeks plants need time to settle in. And yes the ADA should be giving enough ferts for the plants for now.

 

And then dose with what? Had a look at everything available on the shelves - all very confusing when you have 20 odd years to catch up with...
everyones help and advice will be appreciated!

 

Most of us use EI dosing very cheap and affordable you wont go wrong with EI or you could get Tropica Specialized the orange/brown one it is all-in-one, I think it just lacks potassium.

Most important thing with using ei is the 40-50% wc of total water volume once a week

EI for dummies..

 

thank you sir!

 

@francoisve

+1 for Camcam on the Ottos

Don't know where in Pretoria you are, but Dory Pets in Centurion also have a lot of Ottos and the Petshop in Lynnwood Road at Willow Way Shopping centre have Ottos and SAE.

I've got a pleco, beautiful and completely in love with him, but he sucks my plants dry - don't know what type of plants you have. He's only around 8 cm but moves at an incredible speed when spooked and will probably uproot most your plants or get hurt. Bought mine when I was unaware of how big they grow. Delivering him to his new home this weekend.

The Ottos and Cory in my 100 liter does a great job.

 

Thanks Dinky
Dory is actually about 200 meters away from my office - not a good thing for the budget:bigsmile:!
Didnt see them theere but also didnt look for them, will have a look when I am back in PTA..
I am not even going to try and ID all the plants I have right now, bought somee here and there, got some free and have not had the time yet to put names to all of them, so before I send all of you into a fit of laughter let me go make sure first...

More questions:
What is the stocking guide for bottom feeders/cleaners? The same as other fish? Reason I ask is firstly because of the algae, which you guys have addressed, and secondly because I quite like the catfish and loaches. OK to keep catfish, ottos, a loach and plecos???