goggles2

both of my tanks are having algae outbreaks and nothing i do seem to bring it under control

does anyone know of a small solitary algae eating fish or invert that would help me here?

i was thinking some shrimp of some kind maybe (not sure if they eat algae) or maybe otos (dont think i have room for a school of otos and my tanks are only partially planted)

is there some kind of very small pleco that would work? ive seen whiptail plecos of somekind at the LFS but its hard to know the exact species and how big they get also they are about 70 bucks

really need some advice here this algae is driving me nuts

sasm3

ive seen some small plecos. a great fish is a siamese or chinese algae eater. they always get the job done quickly

goggles2

ive heard they can really big though i need something that stays small

Dino

What type of algae is causing you problems?
From your profile, neither tank listed has room to add fish.
It would be better to find the source of the problem, rather than fight the symptoms.

Red1313

Snails? They seem to do a good job in most of my tanks...

MissMTS

Chinese algae eaters grow large, aggressive, and carnivorous and are definetly not a good choice for an algae eater.

I agree with Dino. If you don't have room in your tanks, try to find the source of the problem. Often algae comes from excess light so you might want to shorten the amount of time that your lights are on each day.

goggles2

yea i have another post about my algae problem under aquarium plants

ive cut the wattage in half and shortened the time thier on for and all thats done is make my swordplant droop and lose color the algae still remains

Red1313

I had really bad alage problems in my tank and the "cure" was somewhere in the following three maybe it was a combination.
1) random blackouts (honestly I forgot to turn the lights on)
2) increase the number of plants (more compition)
3) added a couple snails

I'm not sure if you want to try this out or not. I think the plants and the lights were what really did it in. For the random blackouts I didn't turn my lights on regularly for a few days. Like only for a couple of hours in the evening.
I hope that helps,

Jess

Red1313, I believe you're right. More plants will cause the algae to have competition and the nutrients will be used by the plants before the algae gets a chance to use it.
Also water changes will help clear algae problems.

gremlin

Neither tank is big enough for a chinese algae eater. I would say either more plants, or maybe a snail...