While BN plecos are the reining king of algae (brown & green) clean up, they have their issues.
Mine have done the following damage:
- Scrapped off the painted surface of all the colorful ornaments my kids have bought me for gifts. I literally found green/grey paint shavings on the substrate the next morning after I got a nice Ancient Ruins ornament for Christmas. The ornaments are mostly all white now.
- Shaved off layers of driftwood. The DW shavings were the source of all the brown gunk in my canisters. I removed the DW from all but one tank. The remaining DW is a 28" center piece for a 150G tall. After three years it appears to be about 1/2" thinner.
- They have even scrapped off some of the silicon seal. They can do this because their teeth are like razors.
I'm still looking for something as good as a bushy-nose but not as destructive. I have a Gold-nugget pleco in one tank that stays small like a BN, but after a year, I still have brown algae everywhere.
Mine have done the following damage:
- Scrapped off the painted surface of all the colorful ornaments my kids have bought me for gifts. I literally found green/grey paint shavings on the substrate the next morning after I got a nice Ancient Ruins ornament for Christmas. The ornaments are mostly all white now.
- Shaved off layers of driftwood. The DW shavings were the source of all the brown gunk in my canisters. I removed the DW from all but one tank. The remaining DW is a 28" center piece for a 150G tall. After three years it appears to be about 1/2" thinner.
- They have even scrapped off some of the silicon seal. They can do this because their teeth are like razors.
I'm still looking for something as good as a bushy-nose but not as destructive. I have a Gold-nugget pleco in one tank that stays small like a BN, but after a year, I still have brown algae everywhere.
