Battling algea

[yvez9]

All right here goes

I am fighting algea here, severe string algea.

I have a 65 watts light strip with co2 injection in my 20 gallon.

I don't have as much plants as I want because I didn't have time to go pick them up yet.

Anyway, here is my army

5 otos
2 borneos
1 whiptail catfish
15 or so ghost shrimp
2 amano shrimp

it seems that they are all eating very little algea.

i just added otos yesterday so i'm hoping they will make a difference
the whiptail catfish doesn't eat any algea at all
the shrimp seem to eat food i leave for the cories more than anything
the borneos do eat some but not enough to make a difference

I was thinking maybe adding snails in there would help. But last time i tried snails, my plants got ripped

i'm mostly mad because every fish or shrimp i add to eat algea seems to eat a lot less than they are reknowned for.

Could I cut food in there and hope the fish eat the algea?
I have cories, glowlight tetras, female betta, whiptail, otos, borneos

 

[Discomafia]

1 word, well.. maybe 2. BN pleco. Not sure about string algae or what exactly that is. Staghorn or hair algae I pressume, just that you know it as a diff name. Not sure if they'll eat it, but they do a good job eating other algae...

OK, I just read your whole post.

You can start off by getting more plants. More plants = extra nutrients used = less nutrients for algae = less algae.

Cutting down on feeding will DEFN. help. Firstly, both speices of shrimp will eat the stuff, plus the ottos should start on it. Borneos should do the same. Cories won't die if you stop feeding for a couple of days.

Only thing is that I dunno if your tetras will eat the stuff, but I really don't think so. Once again, stopping feeding for a few days won't hurt.

HTH

 

[Jen]

Don't feed them for 2 or 3 days and see what happens. Thats what I do if I notice a buildup of algae.

 

[yvez9]

I wanted a bristlenose pleco but the oly place I saw them, they were overpriced so I didn't get one.

If the otos are lousy algea eaters, I'll go pick one up though

and yes, more plants are for sure. I just wanted to get my light kit before I added plants. I only received last week.

Probably this weekend I'll go get a few more