Algae Eater

[Melfice]

Under the "Some Newbie no no's" topic; it said not to get Golden, Chinese Algae Eaters. My 29 gallon tank has very small brown algae starting to build on my rocks etc. It's been running for 7 weeks with water and 6 weeks with fish. It's done cycling now. I will be adding some real plants soon (I hear it helps with algae issues). My question is, what are good algae eater's to get for my community tank?

Tank Info:
PH 8.0 (Going to use Peat this weekend)
NH3/NH4+ 0 mg/l (Ammonia)
NO2 0 mg/l (Nitrite)
GH = 9 dH KH = 8 dH

Fish:
1 Dwarf Gourami
2 Gold Gouramis
2 Ornate Cory Cats

The fish are doing great

 

[Angry_Platy]

Get yourself a bristlenose catfish (pl*co)...they clean the tank of algae in no time...I had algae all through my tank and within 3 days of getting a 1 inch baby bnose, my tank was clean!!!

Well worth the $6 if I do say so myself!!

I recently bought my plec a female to "play"with....or...translated....have babies with!!! HE is now 3 inches and she is slightly bigger!!

They eat vegies...bottom dwelling tablets and algae...LOTS of algae!!

 

[Mustang5L5]

Plecos are good, but try to find the smallest one you can. They get pretty big and they poop all over the place.

My Petco sells 1" baby Plecs for $1.09

I'd get one but my convicts don't like plecos at all.

I like Otocinclus Catfish after the plecos. I have three of them and it's nice to see em perch on plants for hours at a time and then dart across the tank.

 

[gadazobe]

I'm with the bristlenose team - great little chaps.

Why do you want to use peat to lower your ph? Personally I think it's better not to play around with the ph coz it makes it very unstable and that's more dangerous to fishies than high ph. If the ph is stable, then fishies can learn to cope with that, but when the ph keeps changing, that's when they get stressed out and fall sick.

 

[babyfish]

get a bristlenose plec, it only grows to about 4 inches/10cm

 

[Sasha]

Otocinclus Catfish (also called Otos) are geat little algae cleaners! They only get a couple inches long and are so fun to watch as they zip across the tank. I have 3 Otos in my 29 gallon tank and they get along great with the other fish. Hope this helps!

 

[Melfice]

I'm with the bristlenose team - great little chaps.

Why do you want to use peat to lower your ph? Personally I think it's better not to play around with the ph coz it makes it very unstable and that's more dangerous to fishies than high ph. If the ph is stable, then fishies can learn to cope with that, but when the ph keeps changing, that's when they get stressed out and fall sick.

Thanks for the heads up on PH levels. I really want some German Blue Rams...and they like 6.5 PH. I'll leave my PH alone then. As you said, fish can learn to cope.

Also, thanks for the tips on some Algae Eaters

 

[drobbins27]

Plecos...without a doubt

 

[SirMinion]

I had the start of a problem with algae in my 68L community tank so I added two small bristlenose plecos. All the algae disapeared overnight. No word of a lie.

I've heard otos are good too.

 

[Bol]

My 29 gallon tank has very small brown algae starting to build on my rocks etc.

That sounds like "diatom algae", which is not really algae, but diatoms.

If that's the case, I don't think any fish will eat it, but I could be wrong.

By the way, the usual way to get rid of (or minimize) diatom algae is to add more light.