Something To Clean The Tank?.......

[Mr Bee]

Hi,

I have a 60L (?? in gallons!) with 6 Glowlights and 5 Neons and find debris and algae in the gravel and on tank decor (rocks/plants). As part of the weekly water change I use a gravel vac to remove water, as I can then siuck some of the crud from out the gravel at the same time. I also have to brush the algae off the rocks.

I was wondering if there was anything I could add tht would eat either the debris - I guess its waste/uneaten food/algae - although I doubt there's much uneaten food, I feed them only a bit at a time and they eat it all!

I was thinking if there was any shrimps or snails or anything that would be useful???

Would have to be compatible with my current tank setup

60L with 6 Glowlight + 5 Neon Tetras (considering for maximum stocking)
Something that stays small, up to an inch or so (like my tetras)
Something that wont eat, or get eaten by, the tetras


Is there anything that would be suitable, or is just a case of keeping doing what I'm doing with the gravel vac and scrubbing algae off the rocks?

 

[catfish101]

firstly ur tank is about 16 us gallons no idea about how many uk gallons that is. Also it would be a good idea to add one more neon so u can have a group of 6. then u could add maybe 3-5 ottos for algea/ crud control

 

[rocknurworld2006]

or a bristlenose

 

[Mr Bee]

Sorry for being a newb - but what exactly is an otto?

(the search function isn't working for me!)

And don't bristlenoses grow big? I didn't want anything that will grow too big for the tank, as its fairly small.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Sorry for being a newb - but what exactly is an otto?

(the search function isn't working for me!)

And don't bristlenoses grow big? I didn't want anything that will grow too big for the tank, as its fairly small.

Otocinclus

There are a few different species, I'm not sure what the most readily available one's are these days, but they aren't difficult to get hold of at all.

Otocinclus Vittatus
Otocinclus Mariae
Otocinclus Macrospilus

Also, 60L's is approx 13 UK Gallons. You could also consider something like an Apple Snail for house keeping.

 

[catfish101]

Sorry for being a newb - but what exactly is an otto?

(the search function isn't working for me!)

And don't bristlenoses grow big? I didn't want anything that will grow too big for the tank, as its fairly small.

no a bristle nose may get a bit big... 4 inches, I think u would be better with the ottos and the apple snail

 

[Mr Bee]

OK, I asked in a seperate thread (here) more specifically about advice for adding Oto's, but now I'm confused .......

I posted this thread (adding Oto's) in the catfish section, and another member (nmonks) kind of implied that I shouldn't add Oto's, but Nerite snails or Cherry shrimp would be better.

So now I dont know what to add

1) Oto's (2 or 3)

2) Nerite Snail (? how many)

3) Cherry Shrimp (? how many, 2 or 3 maybe)


Yeah, I do want something that might keep some of the algae down, mainly on the rocks and decoration, as the glass is easy to clean anyway. Its the rocks and plants (synthetic plants) that I cant keep clean and they're covered in brown algae. So something to reduce or eliminate this would be great, as well as a bit of variety and something different too.

Oh, if its important, the tank has been set up for about 8 months, with my current Fluval 2 filter being in for the last 2 months (after my original filter packed up), but I moved the media from the old filter into my new one. And all the substrate is the same, so it should be a fully mature tank.

 

[SJ2K]

Somthing to clean the tank? Yeh its called weekly maintenance dont rely on fish to carry out functions, scrub off the algae and vac out the debree.

 

[catfish101]

i think that either the nertrite snails or ottos would be best, like 10 or 12 snails or 2-4 ottos

 

[Mr Bee]

I'm gonna go for either Nerites or Cherry Shrimp I think. I saw some shrimp (not cherry shrimp though) in my LFS over the weekend and I really like the look of them. They'd look fantastic scuttling around on the bottom and in the plants


But so far I've only found online shops selling red cherry shrimp (i want these as they are the smaller size variety), and they sell young ones at about 1cm big. But I'm worried they won't survive with my tetras.

Are shrimp at 1cm long safe from attack by my tetras (neons and glowlights), or will they eat them??

I've only seen snailshop.co.uk advertising adult cherry shrimp for sale, but they dont have any in stock.

 

[catfish101]

i would imagine that they would be fine with the tetras.

 

[paw-paw]

just to say I too wouldn't recomend you ottos since you don't have live plants.

I would go with shrimps if I were you

 

[SharonCC]

I had Otos before I had any live plants. They are fine without plants, although they can be difficult to acclimate. Once they have been OK for a couple of months, they're tough little guys....

 

[~T~]

To me it sounds like you are overfeeding if you are having to vac out crud all the time.

 

[wendywc]

Personally, I hate nerite snails because they scatter their eggs everywhere... all over driftwood, rocks, and glass. Plus their eggs are really hard to remove and have to be scraped off.

I wouldn't get any more fish or shrimp or snails. I would just continue doing the maintenance you're doing.