plecos?

[plow]

What do you guys use to keep the tank clean from algae?

I bought a pleco today, cos my tank was going totally green, filled with algae.

So far he has cleaned one rock completely, now there is a bright part in my tank.

What does eveyone else use?

I know algae is good for mbunas but my tank was getting real green, and i change 70% water a fortnight.

[jbeining75]

Watch the pleco... Africans for some reason enjoy picking at the plecos eyes. Some african cats will eat algae. I just end up scrubbing mine all the time.

[smaug]

A good water change schedule and cutting back on the feeding as well as less light are all helpful.As for algae eating fish I use SAE,CAE and a sailfin plec,sadly the sailfin eats very little algae,the sae are like vacuum cleaners however.

[plow]

just interesting because today I was at my local fish shop, the guy is an expert, he knows his stuff and is passionate about fish.

His tanks are spectacluar, incredibly clean with expensive back to nature malawi backgrounds in every mbuna tank. I asked him how much he feeds them.. turns out they get fed as much as mine do. He changes the water once a week, 30%.

not too different to mine.. the only difference was the pleco. His first question to me was if I had one, and basically thats where the conversation went.

so I bought one.

and after 12 hours hes made a bright patch where hes totally cleaned up this rock. But I think hes full now and is resting.

I'm impressed by him so far.

[plow]

A good water change schedule and cutting back on the feeding as well as less light are all helpful.As for algae eating fish I use SAE,CAE and a sailfin plec,sadly the sailfin eats very little algae,the sae are like vacuum cleaners however.

what is a SAE?

ahh.. siamese algae eaters right?

I have four of those in my community tank, they work hard but they still leave a lot of patches behind.

I also bought some oto cats for the community tank, they cleaned out the brown algae in days where the SAE hadn't done so and there is the reason i bought the oto cats...

I didn't dare use them in a mbuna tank though, thought they might get swallowed whole.

[smaug]

just interesting because today I was at my local fish shop, the guy is an expert, he knows his stuff and is passionate about fish.

His tanks are spectacluar, incredibly clean with expensive back to nature malawi backgrounds in every mbuna tank. I asked him how much he feeds them.. turns out they get fed as much as mine do. He changes the water once a week, 30%.

not too different to mine.. the only difference was the pleco. His first question to me was if I had one, and basically thats where the conversation went.

so I bought one.

and after 12 hours hes made a bright patch where hes totally cleaned up this rock. But I think hes full now and is resting.

I'm impressed by him so far.
sounds awesome you got a hungry plec,some are ravenous.I wasnt meaning to imply you arent doing the work,everyones water is different,I have no algae whatsover in my 20 gal tetra/barb tank,no plec,no algae eaters at all.If you have higher nitrates or phosphates then is normal you could expect to have far and away more algae then someone else with out these problems.Congrats on your plec.

[smcurry83]

I was getting a lot of brown algae and was tired of scrubbing it one day and seeing start to come back the next. I got two plecos and they keep the tank spotless!!!. I didn't even realize how dirty the inside of the caves were until the plecos cleaned them out!!!!

[Dixie]

Yep I have 2 plecos that keep my tank spotless. I have heard that cichlids will eat their eyes but if you add them when they are young (both the cichlids and plecos) they grow up together and get along fine. I've also heard that when plecos get older they get lazy and stop doing such a good job of cleaning. I saw one of mine floating belly up at the top of the water one day while I was feeding. Gave me a good start. I thought he was dead but he was just waiting on the fish food to fall in his mouth. I give the plecos algea wafers because I'm not sure there's enough algea for them to survive on.

[dgoulston]

gave my pleco cucumber for the last few nights, but only last night did he actually have a nibble, and seemed to love it!!!!! so will be a common treat i think.. as i believe they need more than just algee.. or so i hear!

[Dixie]

Oh yeah they love zuchinni squash too. I par boil the zuchinni a little first then cool it. The cichlids love it too.

[RainMan]

Frozen peas... just get a bag and thaw a few out once in a while. Squeeze the insides out of the shell into the tank. All of my mbuna love them.

I never heard plecos get there eyes picked out by mbuna? What kinda cichlids were they?

I rarely have any algae... just a little on the glass and in the corners. Rocks are a little gross though. Unfortunately, my synodonts rather eat the cichlid food and spend all day picking through the gravel. Algae isn't really their job anyway.

I want a pleco just so I can see them at work. Can't have everything I want though. ;)

I agree with smaug....

A good water change schedule and cutting back on the feeding as well as less light are all helpful. I changed my lights a few months ago too... Can't remember what I replaced them with. But, that seemed to slow down the rate of glass algae buildup. I heard that if you cut a half hour or so off your lighting schedule that can help too.