Which is the BEST Algae Eater

[albirdy]

Is there anything that will eat hair algae besides the flag fish? It is quite ugly, aggressive, and not in sync with my south american biotope.

Gracias

 

[Caoboy]

Snails, and Amano, or Cherry, Or Minami shrimp, just to name a few things for a 'cleaner' crew. Otto's are good as well. Be careful though, if you over feed your fish, your cleaner crew will get spoiled and stop eating the algae, and only eat the leftover food.

 

[Lupin]

It's funny I forgot the shrimps wherein most shrimps actually do a neat job cleaning hair algae. Amanos are nice to add there.

 

[paulW]

Bristle nosed pleco is the best algae eater, hands down, imo.

Of course, it's best to try to remedy the cause of excessive algae rather than to rely on fish to clean it up..

 

[geeimatree]

uv sterilizer, phosphate remover, water changes

thats what im planning to do
well i dont think ill be putting phosphate remover once i get a uv sterilizer though

ive had some luck with common plecos before, but they poo more than they eat and you can't just feed them ONLY algae

 

[Pankakes]

would any of you guys recommend an algae eater, snail or a particular shrimp for a 20 gallon feeder tank to help keep clean?

 

[Kobeclone]

would any of you guys recommend an algae eater, snail or a particular shrimp for a 20 gallon feeder tank to help keep clean?

If it is just a feeder tank then get a couple of mystery snails and let them breed like rabbits...

 

[Lrry93]

Bristle nosed pleco is the best algae eater, hands down, imo.

Of course, it's best to try to remedy the cause of excessive algae rather than to rely on fish to clean it up..

^^ I agree 100% bristlenose are the best cleaners I have found

 

[WyldFya]

Bristle nosed pleco is the best algae eater, hands down, imo.

Of course, it's best to try to remedy the cause of excessive algae rather than to rely on fish to clean it up..

That is a very close ended claim. BNs do not clean many types of algae, and actually are quite inadequate at most types of algae.

 

[WyldFya]

uv sterilizer, phosphate remover, water changes

thats what im planning to do
well i dont think ill be putting phosphate remover once i get a uv sterilizer though

ive had some luck with common plecos before, but they poo more than they eat and you can't just feed them ONLY algae

UV and phosphate remover don't work on many algaes, UV is only good for green water or unicellular algae, which is an algae that floats in the water. A UV will do nothing for a black beard algae. Phosphate removers IME do nothing useful. Phosphates will cause some algae to grow, but many types are unaffected by this.