Snails

[Alz1992]

Hey everyone, i'm in the process of cycling my (roughly)15G tank and i'm looking for algae eaters which would be suitable for its size. (22x12x18)
I adore plecos, but i don't have any wood they apparently need, also i'd have to find a bristlenose instead of a common, i don't want to have to coat him in vaseline just so he can turn around....

Thats another question actually - do ALL plecos need this mysterious wood?

anyway - Snails. are they any good at cleaning (and not escaping.......)? i remember years ago in an old tank we had, our next door neighbours gave us some snails but they became such a nuisance, we had snails EVERYWHERE. i kid you not, it was hard to see in the tank from the layer of moving shell.

 

[micko]

I like apple snails, they do a good job of keeping the tank clean, I very rarely clean the glass in the tank I have them in. Shrimp are also good for removing algae.

 

[ATK!!!]

Don't get snails unless you are sure they are not hermaphrodites (both genders) as these will breed like crazy. Zebra nerite snails are amazing at eating algae and don't reproduce in normal fish tanks. About the wood, it isn't really too mysterious! Almost all good fish stores will sell it and it looks great in any tank

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Keeping apples feed on algae is not good for them and thy will die in time. I Had a tank of 400 or so the small one like to snack on it but adults needed something more filling

 

[Alz1992]

@micko Wait shrimp clean algae? thats new to me, i feel embarassed for not knowing that...

@ATK hmm, what plecos would be good for that tank size though? bristlenose?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

1. The tank is not guaranteed to get any algae problems at all as long as you maintain proper lighting & nutrient levels in the tank. Sometimes the best way to get rid of algae is to simply get live aquarium plants to establish themselves in the tank (Flourish Excel- excellent aquarium plant fertiliser for this !).

2. There are many different types of pleco's, some eat wood and some don't- the wood they eat is usually bogwood or driftwood which you can get from your LFS. But then bogwood leaches out tannins and can stain the aquarium water for a while. Also a lot of pleco's make pretty poor algae eaters, only concentrating on the stuff when they are young. They also poop a lot and so can actually ironically end up contributing to algae problems in the long run if there's an excess of nutrients in the tank causing the problem.
There are also different types of algae- few algae eating fish eat every type. Oto's make a much better small algae eating aquarium fish (only grow to 2inches) but they're sociable and so need to be kept in groups and they're also quite sensitive to water quality etc (so not recommended for newly set up tanks).

3. Some snails are better at eating algae than others, though i'm not totally sure which ones are the best for algae eating. Apple Snails are a large growing attractive orenmental snail which are popular additions to aquariums and will eat some algae (they also don't breed out of control). They come in golden form and natural colour form.



Personally i would just recommend going down the establishing plants route to prevent algae problems. A while back my 30gal Swordtail rearing tank got really bad Black Hair Algae and i tried almost everything to get rid of it, but to no avail. I did have live plants in the tank but even they were getting covered by the black algae and weirdly when i tested the water there was almost no nitrates in it (i expected there to be a lot as high nitrates can fuel algae problems). But then i learnt that while some algae problems can come about because of an excess of nutrients, other types of algae problems can come about because of a lack of nutrients.
The problem with my tank was that it had too little nutrients and while the plants in the aquarium were just surviving, there wasn't a large enough or consistent enough source of nutrients to get them properly established. So i started dosing the tank with large daily doses of Flourish Excel, and not only did my aquarium plants start growing again but the Black Hair Algae started to go away as the plants started to out-compete them.
In the end i didn't even have to wipe the glass once, just a few weeks of Flourish Excel treatment and all the algae in the tank was gone (and my plants looked great too!) .

Here's a really great link on ID'ing different types of algae and how to get rid of them v ;

http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm

 

[micko]

I have quite a few algae shrimp and they eat the majority of food waste and keep the tank clean. I must point out though that there was minimal algae in the tank prior to putting them and the apple snails in the tank. I wouldn't suggest getting anything and expecting it to live off algae alone. Even a common plec will still leave algae, its their last choice of food.

 

[Alz1992]

Im tempted to put some shrimp after micko's reply or plants after Tokis's reply (thanks for that amount of information i really appreciate it!). It's a shame really i'd have loved a pleco it'd be so nostalgic, i grew up with aforementioned tank where the centrepiece was our giant common pleco , but i guess for this smaller tank shrimp would do nicely, maybe do both, planted aquariums look amazing!

 

[micko]

You'd need moss and shrimp love moss

 

[Alz1992]

i imagine moss would be easier to put in my tank than bogwood (for fear of cramping)

 

[micko]

A lot of people, including myself tie moss to wood, or rocks, it catches hold and grows well.

 

[Alz1992]

Hmm, i'll have to see about getting me some wood... its a shame seapets online doesnt sell that stuff..

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Hmm, i'll have to see about getting me some wood... its a shame seapets online doesnt sell that stuff..

Here you go mate much better the seapaps http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=414_11_238

 

[Alz1992]

made my night, thank you! (seapets got to me too, i ordered a tank, and it arrived smashed with ornaments INSIDE the actual tank, unwrapped, no form of bubble wrap. just the packaging of the item. i was shocked.)

 

[BigbruiserAl]

yep same got a replacement but had to wait a week utter garbage seapets