Help, Algae eating fish needed

[L0uise_0liver]

Hey,
I have a 56 litre tank but I can’t seem to find any algea eaters that’ll be okay with the fish I have in my tank. I have 3 Electric Blue Rams, One Dwarf Gourami, and 5 Serpae Tetras. I had otos before but they keep dying. The tank doesn’t produce that much algae it’s quite far away from the window. I have it’s light on for 12-14 hours a day. I know I can’t have shrimp as the Gourami will eat them. I have two hides and a large root for the fish to find and swim through. There’s also 5 plants in the tank as well that take up a decent amount of the tank. Has anyone got any ideas?
Thanks x

 

[Essjay]

Nerite snails. Provided you can cope with the amount of poop, and if you got a male and female, white eggs everywhere (they don't hatch so no danger of over population just decor with measles)


The best way to approach algae is to find out what's causing it and sort that out. For example, you have your lights on for 12 to 14 hours a day. Unless you have live plants also dose a lot of fertiliser, this may be the cause.
In tanks with no live plants, this duration of light is not needed, while in tanks with live ppants it may be too long depending on the species of plant.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum How long has this tank been set up? Your Rams and Gourami might end up at each others throats (either ram vs gourami or ram vs ram) as 56 ltr is a bit small to have so many territorial fish. The Rams will also need to be kept at higher temperature than the DG so just something to be aware of.

If you dont have much of an algae problem I would go down a plant route rather than a fish route. Get some really fast growing plants like Limnophilla Sessiflora, Hygrophila Siamensis 53b or Cardomine Lyrata (I have them in my tank if you want to check out the link in my signature). If you have lights on for 10-12 hours a day and dont have algae problems (I'm very jealous) but I also dont think you are likely to have a major issues that will require a clean up crew.

Would love to see pics of the tank

Wills

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I would not get any fish to get rid of algae, they usually make more of a mess and more problems!

As mentioned above, Nerite snails are a great choice. You can find them for relatively cheap and they produce minimal waste.

Anacharis is a good option for reducing algae as well. I keep my light on for 14 hours a day+ and I never have any algae, thanks to my Anacharis.

 

[L0uise_0liver]

sadly I don’t have any up to date photos of the tank to show. I have a photo from back in April before I had moved my fish from their smaller tank to their new big one. I’ve scribbled out the plants that I killed ‍ And there’s now a hide in between the log and the tree root. The plant at the back now is substantially taller and thicker. The plant on the left is now extremely short and not doing too well.

The tanks been set up for a year now. The rams and gourami are shockingly nice to each other never seen them fight at all. They all are very relaxed together. And there’s no fin damaged on any of them

I had no algae eaters for a while and then brown algae appeared everywhere. So I got two ottos and now I have none. Sadly one died so maybe they’re not best for my tank?
The tanks has never had an over growth of algae it’s more on the hides and decorative pieces. They get a weird brown algae as well as my anubias barteri angustifolia. I have a Hygrophila rosae australis however it got the brown stuff on it I cut it back and now isn’t growing well at all even with CO2 and fertiliser that I use once a week. I also have a alternanthera reineckii red dennerle which is situated at the back and growing extremely well. And then two anubias barteri angustifolia which are again growing extremely well.
Thank you for your help. Louise

 

[AilyNC]

I'd reduce lights to 10 hrs and see if that helps.

 

[LordHappy]

Happy day...I concur with reducing the lights and adding some plants. I'm not sophistimicated like the others when it comes to Latin-name dropping, but one might consider adding the plant world's version of the Incredible Hulk: Java Fern. Unlike Hulk, who resists any form of bondage and just prefers to smash, you can use thread to tie the Java Fern to that piece of wood. It is not a stem plant and takes its fertilizer from the water column directly. Also...and this may be a bit of a reach, but I see the reflection of a window. Ignoring the guy looking in for a moment, I was thinking that the white wall is reflecting some light back into the tank, and that perhaps a backing would help reduce that bit of light.

 

[Jamesthecat]

Agree with the previous posts - deal with the root cause or causes first. Once you’ve figured out what’s caused the bloom ( lighting, overfeeding etc ) then you should see a reduction.
Here’s a list of algae eaters but bear in mind that your stuck with them when the algae’s gone and it just adds more to the bio load.

• Bristlenose Plecostomus (Bristlenose plecos) Bristlenose plecos are a great addition to most aquariums. ...
• Siamese Algae Eater. ...
• Chinese Algae Eater. ...
• Otocinclus Catfish. ...
• Twig Catfish. ...
• Nerite Snail. ...
• Cherry Shrimp. ...
• Amano Shrimp.

 

[Essjay]

I would remove Chinese algae eater from that list. They may eat algae when small but as they grow - and they grow quite large - they stop eating algae and take to sucking the slime coat off other fish.

The tank size need to be taken into consideration as well - in this case it's 54 litres which is too small for most algae eating fish. But I'd forgotten about shrimps