algae eaters...again

[Tednol]

hello!

i have a 12g(u.k) 15g(u.s) 24inch tank with:
1 Albino Catfish
3 Black Neon Tetras
2 Glowlight Tetras
3 Lemon Tetras

rite, i had a previous post which kicked off a discussion about how much of a poo fish keeper i am.

I started to to do water changes 2+ a week, now in 3rd week of doing that and my nitrate levels have more than halfed.

I asked about algae eaters and my main response was to get rid of my CAE to free up space, to replace him with a fish that actually eats algae, so today i found he has died , sad but also a blessing in discuise because i was going to give him to someone else which would be stessful for it.

So now i have a decision on what alagae eater i should get. My water perameters are much better and going down, i will test and post them when i do them sometime today probably.

I dont have any plants becasue of my high nitrate levels, but i'm either going to get fake or real.
I will probably get real becasue fake will get covered in algae knowing my luck.

Any suggestions will be great!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

There aern't realy any algae eaters that will fit happily in your tank and the amount of poo plecs make for example will put the whole effort to waste, do you actually have algae in the tank? For a small tank the best way to remove algae is by yourself.

 

[Tednol]

There aern't realy any algae eaters that will fit happily in your tank and the amount of poo plecs make for example will put the whole effort to waste, do you actually have algae in the tank? For a small tank the best way to remove algae is by yourself.

yeah but it keeps the hassl down, and my tank is looking a bit bare now, and green. I get it on the glass alot and on plants when i get some, so do you think ottos would be a good idea?

get a good water quality and some plants, and out some of them in.

how many do you think? i know that you shouldnt keep them alone

or maybe a bristlenose

 

[sylvia]

Otos won't solve your problem. No fish will. Now that you have a correctly stocked tank (when to comes to bioload anyway - you still have problems with the schools but never mind that now), get yourself an algae scraper. Decide on a day and set aside a couple of hours devoted to your fish - clean up ALL the algae - take out any ornaments/fake plants with algae on and rinse them off, then start syphoning until you've emptied out 90% of your tank's water. Re-fill. From this point on make sure you do WEEKLY 25% water changes and scrape off any new algae while you're at it. If you keep on top of maintainance, it isn't such a big hassle and will only take up about half an hour per week plus a couple of minutes spent on feeding once per day. If you don't add any new fish and instead go out and buy suitable fast-growing live plants (after you've done the big clean-up), you almost certainly won't have a serious algae problem again and your fish will be healthy. If you don't have a high wattage per gallon (tank's lights), stick to easy plants like elodea (can both be left floating or put in gravel - I suggest you put it in the gravel) and duckweed (floating and indestructible) for now and that should help keeo algae growth down.

 

[rdd1952]

If the algae is green and slimey, it is probalby blue green algae and I am not aware of any algae eater that will eat it. I have true Siamese Algae Eaters in my 75 gallon tank and they do a great job but are also hard to find. I am reading a lot about the American/Florida Flag Fish and want to try them but can't seem to find anyone with first hand experience. You might also try amano shrimp. They create very little in the way of waste.

 

[lizard]

I didn't see the other post that talked about whether or not you're a good fishkeeper, so I don't really have anything to say on that.

The suggestion for shrimp is a good one.

By Albino Catfish, I'm assuming you mean an Albino Cory. Corys like to be in groups of at least three. If you do regular water changes and when your chemical levels are back down to acceptable levels, I'd suggest getting a couple more Corys.

If you want an algae eater, I'd suggest a couple of Otos.

Tetras and Corys aren't big waste producers (unlike Plecos).

One of my previous ten-gallon setups had six or eight Neon Tetras (can't remember exactly, something like 3-5 Corys, and two Otos. I didn't have any problems with that tank (other than algae before I got the Otos). Did water changes every week or two. The fish all did just fine.

For plants, I recommend live. The fish really like them and I think they look a lot better than plastic ones. If you don't have any "fancy" lighting on your tank, look for low light plants like Anubias (I think they're low light, but you might want to check) and Java Fern and Java Moss. Those Plant-Gro bulbs, or whatever they're called, from Wal-Mart did well in my 10-gallon tank without any "fancy" lighting. Elodea/Anacharis is a high light plant, but mine seemed to do okay in the 10-gallon. Perhaps because the light didn't have far to travel...

Good luck

Pamela
aka Married Lizard