Algae Eaters

[Zoeeannee]

I have a 350L mid-heavily planted tank with the following tank-mates (all are adults). I have a lot of algae growing on the sides and am looking for suggestions about what algae eaters I can get. I may resort to nerite snails but wanted to see if anyone had other options.

Algae eaters / cleanup crew:
- 1x bristlenose pleco
- 1x ruby shark
- 6x pepper cory

Others:
- 1x tbar
- 1x blue acara
- 1x firemouth
- 1x rainbow cichlid
- 1x ellioti
- 1x female angel
- 4x pearl gourami

As odd as the cichlid mix might sound, they are actually very docile toward each other; I think because I got them all as <1 inch juveniles.

Any suggestions on what to do algae-wise? I don't overfeed it's all gone within 2 mins. Could do more Corys or maybe other algae eaters? Something like Otos maybe but I wouldn't do Otos because they'd get eaten

 

[Byron]

It depends upon the species of algae. No fish will eat all species, even if they might (and I say "might") eat one species. Common green algae and diatoms will be rapidly consumed by otos, Farlowella, Bristlenose, but these fish will not touch "problem" algae. Post a photo of the algae and members may be able to offer suggestions. The best control if it is a "problem" type like black brush for example is to restore the balance of light/nutrients to keep it in check.

Corydoras do not ever eat algae. They will browse mats of algae looking for microscopic critters to eat, but never the algae itself, they are problems digesting plant matter.

 

[BrianK]

I use nerites and amano shrimp. Between the 2 they eat almost all my algae.

 

[Lynnzer]

I was inundated with usual green algae on the glass, and hair algae on the plants. It was a new tank and also had lots of slime forming on plants etc. I added 6otos (75ltr tank) and along with a dozen or so blue velvet shrimp cleared it nicely. I have added 2 amano shrimp since then to prevent any other outbreak.
The lights were left dimmed for any time I had them switched on such as at feeding time and that helped a lot.

 

[CarissaT]

It’s a little strange for a heavily planted tank to have an algae problem, is the tank well established? For algae forming on the walls I would look at making sure there are good gravel vacs and water changes being done regularly, and perhaps look at how much light is hitting the sides. Dirt+light = algae. But you don’t want to starve your plants of light if they are doing well. If you have algae growing on the plants too, thats a whole other can of worms involving getting your plants healthier.

Assuming everything else is good with your plants and you don’t have an exorbitant amount of light hitting the sides for some reason, and we‘re not talking about bga or brush algae, my first instinct would be snails. You could also go with another bristlenose pleco, if the first one seems to be eating it. Might just be too much for one to handle.