I have a 72 gallon tank. I have a Hi-Fin Leopard Plecostomas and 4 mystery snails. They are not doing their jobs because I have algea on the glass and it's building. My plecostomas and snails seem to suck on everything in the tank and very rarely do I see them on the glass. How can I get the algea off the glass? Should I buy the eraser looking thing to keep my glass algea free?
A cheap and good thing to use is the foam insert from aquaclear filters.
You can buy a box of one or three I believe and they work well.
Most plecos really are not that great at keeping a tank clean, most. I would try to figure out why you have algae in the first place and try to solve the problem, or it will just keep coming back soon after you wipe it away.
>>Have you been feeding your pleco with fish food?<<
No, I was feeding him an algea pellet a few times a week but now I don't feed him anything except when the fish food falls to the bottom (which I don't even know if he eats that.
The reason I'm asking is b/c he might be full from the left over foods and the regular food and therefore does not want to eat the algae. What are your water parameters? Too many nitrates can be consumed by algae. How many watts do you have in your tank and how long do you leave the lights on for? When did you also start your tank? For newly set up tanks algae will usually bloom (brown algae) and as it matures it will slowly go away.
>>A cheap and good thing to use is the foam insert from aquaclear filters.You can buy a box of one or three I believe and they work well. Most plecos really are not that great at keeping a tank clean, most. I would try to figure out why you have algae in the first place and try to solve the problem, or it will just keep coming back soon after you wipe it away.<<
I had some algrea before and wiped it off but it came back.
Exactly. Most of the time algae can be gotten under control with just a few simple steps. You may need to do more and or larger water changes, less food when you feed, and cut down on how much light the tank gets. These three things will usually do wonders.
Most Plecs will make more of a mess than they will ever clean up in my experience with them!! Most lkely that the algae is a type that the plec is not fond of. Not all algae eaters eat all types of algae. In fact there are relativley few types of algae that fish will eat at all. If you provide the details asked for by eiginh, as well as if you have live plants your fertilizer shedule, I'm sure we can get an idea about what is causing the algae & how to prevent it's growth rather than just how to clean it up. The big problem with cleaning algae is that it will usually release algae spores all over the place & you actually end up with more algae than you started with.
No problem! It takes a while to get used to the different forum tools. I'm still finding new things. lol