Ottocinclus

I've been looking for SAEs for quite awhile now (to eat the hairy algae that's growing on everything) and cannot find any. LFS's generally only keep the CAEs or Flying foxes, which I believe are not good choices for keeping algae at bay.

I recently found a store that keep ottocinclus. Is this a good alternative to the SAEs? How many should I get? I have a 3 foot tank (+-90litres), and I think that I am borderline overstocked. Is there anything about the ottos that I need to consider?

I'm trying to sort the algae out from whatever imbalance I have in my tank but am so far losing the battle.

 

I'm too new to keeping fish to advise, but i keep seeing people saying Ottos are better than SAEs. Something about SAEs eating the mucus lining off the other fish...

 

I've heard of that too, but I think that refers more to the CAEs.

 

I see... Check this out (Same discussion)

 

http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=208

 

Thanks Scaly, I deliberately opened this thread to specifically discuss otos, and not the SAE.

Anyway, I'm gonna go buy a few otos now now, and will provide feedback.

LiftCrazy, thanks for directing me to that other thread. I just hope the otos will eat my kind of algae. It looks so bad that I almost want to chuck everything away and start again, but then I've invested a lot of money into the plants.

Wish me luck.

 

I had a huge algae issue, got 8 otto`s and it was cleared in no time, even algae that covered the fine leafs of plants... Unfortunately they dont seem to do well at higher temps, have lost 3 of the 8 over the past 5 months

 

LanceP - Hey that sucks man. I hope they do the job, let me know how it goes... i am looking at getting a few myself. I "de-barked" some mopani and put it back in the tank... there is now a clear layer of algae growing (Looks like mucus) where the wood was and i am hoping some ottos will clean this up for me.

Maybe look at the thread with that algae scrubber... perhaps you can "out compete" the algae??? Holding thumbs!

 

That algae screen i mentioned.... http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=239

 

Well, I've just bought 3 ottos. Will see how it goes.

Yeah I saw the thread about the algae screen, but I don't use a sump, so it's not an option.

 

Lance, there is some other ways of setting up a screen

have a look here for a few ideas

http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/showthread.php?t=6655

 

Thanks Singularity. Some nice alternatives to a sump algae screen. I'll try it out if the ottos don't help.

Well, I've had my ottos for almost 24 hours now and when I got them they immediately went to work. The only thing is that they did not go straight for the hair algae. They spent most of the time on the driftwood or glass. This morning I think I saw one of my plant's leaves that I think had a lot of algae, have less. So, I think they are eating the hair too. But at the rate that they're going and the rate in which the algae grows, I may need to get more ottos. I'll leave them for a few days to confirm if they are going for the hair. If not, I've read that Rosy Barbs definitely eat hair algae? If I recall, I only saw variants of the Rosy Barb (e.g. neon rosy barbs - orange) at the LFS, as opposed to the plain silver looking ones. Anybody know if all variants of the rosy barbs eat and behave in the same way?

 

why not rather try and find the source of the algea rather than try and treat the effect

 

Henk, I've sort of tried, and am still trying. I was hoping that the cleanup crew would be a quick fix before the algae gets out of hand...almost there. Since I am still a noobie, finding the root of the evil might take awhile. Besides, the ottos are so cute :bigsmile:

From what I've researched, the possible culprits are the lights and nutrients. I use DIY CO2 injection, but have not found any resources mentioning that CO2 causes algae.

With the lights, I have various types of tubes totalling 85watts. This works out to approx 0.85 watts per litre, or 3.2 watts per gallon. This is apparently good in terms of the articles I've read online. Since I started getting algae, I've switched off a couple of the tubes, and now only use 45 watts (0.45wpl / 1.7wpg) and the algae still grows strong.

So I figured it must be the water then, with excess nutrients. So, I started with frequent water changes to get rid of the excess, but still do not see much improvement. Question: Is it safe to change 20% of the water on a daily basis to test further? I did water changes 2 days in a row, but I think I need to do this longer to see the long term effect.

In terms of the specific elements that algae loves, that being nitrates and phosphates; I have tested the nitrates and according to the test kit, do not have much. I guess this is a result of the water changes. I do not have a kit to test for phosphates though but was hoping that this would also be taken care of from the water changes.

Any other advice will be most welcome?

 

i would do 10% per day. how old is the tank? have you fiddled with the filter lately? what filter are you running? whats your feeding like?

 

Thanks, I'll do the daily water changes and see what happens.

I've had the tank for almost a year now (inherited), but in November last year had to do some major maintenance coz the silicon seals gave way and the tank split open.

I've got an internal box filter with ceramic rings and carbon inside. I've recently changed filters (december). The new one is stronger than the old one and pumps about 400lph, based on the box. If I can recall, I still had the algae with the old filter but not as bad. When I changed the filter, I took some of the old ceramic rings and put it in the new one. I changed the carbon yesterday, but other than that I rinse the filter contents out about once a month.

I've reduced feeding to once a day (some days) since the algae got out of hand.

Oh I forgot, in december I bought liquid plant nutrients. I think it was from Sera. I dosed as recommended on the label. I think this may be when the algae started growing quickly, but I have not dosed in about 4/5 weeks.

 

I have intoduced co2 recently and have noticed an increase hairlike green algae on my plants, the swords in particular.... a small sacrifice for lush vegetation i suppose... i put 2 black mollies in 2 days ago, (not my favourite fish) but they seem to have a liking for the stuff... will monitor and post

 

From what you have posted above I can see a few reasons for the algae.

Every time you clean the filter media in water other than tank water you kill off all the bacteria that has built up to break down the waste. What then happens is that the filter has to start the cycle process from the beginning, thus a build up of nutrients in the water.

I have gone back and checked your 100L tank thread and I see you have 2 plecos in that tank. Remember those guys are sh!t machines. All they do the whole day is poop. Also remember those fish gets as big as what your tank is long…

I would avoid adding ANY extra nutrient to the tank for the time being. Avoid using things like fertilizers or over feeding.

I would also look at getting something like Organic Aqua or Sera Nutrivec to help the filter along.

HTH

 

Ummm do you think I have too little Co2? Since light, nutrients and Co2 have to be balanced, would insufficient Co2 cause algae? I have quite a lot of plants, and am probably slightly overstocked, therefore lotsa poop. I hear that Co2 testers are very pricey, are there other ways to test Co2 levels?

Sorry to all the pros, these 1001 questions must be annoying.

 

Henk, thanks for trying to help me out.

When I clean the filter contents, I do use the tank water (in a bucket of course) and not clean water.

With regard to the plecos, I moved 1 into another tank, as well as 1 of the ghosts, angels and rainbow sharks, but then added about 10 rasboras :bigsmile:. I figure that there's still less crap though.

With regard to my comments that I just posted about the CO2, if I have lotsa light, lotsa nutrients and lotsa co2 (if I increase it), will I still get algae? I'm thinking about maybe adding more co2.