Fixing my algae outbreak

[Clovis]

I have a 15 g Fluval flex which is heavily planted and had 4 pea puffers. I’ve gotten rid of the puffers and want to stock the tank to balance it and clean up the algae outbreak. 
 

I am thinking of some Amani shrimp, a few neurogenic snails and a pleco. 
 

good or bad idea? Better ideas?

[Jimfish98]

Snails and Amano will do good in there. Pleco could easily outgrow the space in time. Maybe SAE or FW Gobies, or both.

 

[Keeg]

I agree with @Jimfish98, pleco will out grow it fast. I personally like to keep guppies in tanks because they do a good job on algae for me. 

[Clovis]

On 9/21/2021 at 5:38 PM, Jimfish98 said:

Snails and Amano will do good in there. Pleco could easily outgrow the space in time. Maybe SAE or FW Gobies, or both.

 

Sorry SAE? Also do you think I can deal with this by stocking? No need to tear it apart or chemical treat?

Edited September 21, 2021 by Clovis

[lefty o]

SAE's go 5"+. lot of fish for a 15.

[Littlefish]

SAE = Siamese algae eater, in answer to the above question.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Littlefish
Clarity

[Littlefish]

Maybe mollies for the algae?  SAE can get aggressive when they get big.  One of mine bullied angels and gbr and had to be taken in.

[lefty o]

another option that is non aggressive, and gets about 3" and eats algae, pandagarra.

[Jimfish98]

On 9/21/2021 at 7:41 PM, Clovis said:

Sorry SAE? Also do you think I can deal with this by stocking? No need to tear it apart or chemical treat?

Always prefer to deal with the tank taking care of itself with its occupants over chemicals. Carbon/Excel could help. 

On 9/21/2021 at 7:44 PM, lefty o said:

SAE's go 5"+. lot of fish for a 15.

You can always trade in for smaller at the LFS. Mine has a hard time getting larger ones in so will take the trade. 

[Liliana Araoz]

What about florida flagfish? or Otocynclus? I just added a pair of florida flagfishes in my 20 gallon puffer tank and they are doing a great job eating all the hair algae away ❤️

 

[Patrick_G]

My go to clean up crew is Amano Shrimp and Otocinclus catfish. 

[Liliana Araoz]

Amano shrimp, otos and florida flagfish are good for a smaller tank. SAE’s are effective algae cleaners as well but they get large. I had 6 small in my 60 gallon, they grew quite large so I gave 4 of them to my LFS. They are great at cleaning bba! Florida flagfish and amanos are what I have in my 20 gallon puffer tank, amanos are good at it but I found out that they were cleaning everything but hair algae. I put a pair of flagfish in two days ago and they are doing amazing, also I know they can be hardy fishies. 

Edited September 25, 2021 by Liliana Araoz

[Clovis]

Thanks for all the help. I got some amano shrimp and a few ottos. 
 

I assume the trick now is not add any food given they are only inhabitants? 

[Littlefish]

On 9/22/2021 at 8:17 PM, Liliana Araoz said:

Amano shrimp, otos and florida flagfish are good for a smaller tank. SAE’s are effective algae cleaners as well but they get large. I had 6 small in my 60 gallon, they grew quite large so I gave 4 of them to my LFS. They are great at cleaning bba! Florida flagfish and amanos are what I have in my 20 gallon puffer tank, amanos are good at it but I found out that they were cleaning everything but hair algae. I put a pair in two days ago and they are doing amazing, also I know they can be hardy fishies. 

Your puffers dont murder your amanos?  Mine grew larger on my cleanup crew than any my lfs had ever seen when I turned him in.

[Liliana Araoz]

Nope! They leave them totally alone. I’ve ordered amanos from different places including my LFS, so I have many different sizes, from tiny about a neocaridina sized one, from inch, inch and a half big. They are still young. When I added them, one of the puffers was curious towards a shrimp, the shrimp spooked a tiny bit, and the puffer hauled ass to the opposite corner. Since then, they never ever have bothered them. In fact I’ve seen my amanos stealing their bloodworms! I know it’s hard to find cleaning crew for pea puffer tanks and a lot of experts will tell you there’s no compatible species, so I kinda agree/disagree… I don’t guarantee that amanos will work in every pea puffer tank, but at least in mine worked to add really big ones, so they learned to leave them alone, I think. So either I am lucky, or just like with bettas, it depends on their temperament. Worth a try, I guess, my only suggestion is to start with big amanos.

[Patrick_G]

@Liliana Araoz, I agree, I have good luck with large Amanos too. Our Betta totally ignores them. 

[Odd Duck]

I have at least one Amano left of the 5 I put in the current 20 long pea puffer tank.  We’ll see how many (if any) come out of the woodwork after I move the puffers into the 29 gallon.  I do plan to add Amanos to the 29, since I won’t be adding any otos.  This time they’ll go in before the puffers do, and I’m still waiting for settling and plant growth.  I haven’t found any dead shrimp carcasses in the 20, but I also haven’t seen any more than one shrimp at a time in months.

Having more than the minimum space for your puffer shoal seems to help them be better behaved, but the personality of both the individual and the group makes a big difference.

[KentFishFanUK]

On 9/22/2021 at 12:33 AM, Clovis said:

I have a 15 g Fluval flex which is heavily planted and had 4 pea puffers. I’ve gotten rid of the puffers and want to stock the tank to balance it and clean up the algae outbreak. 
 

I am thinking of some Amani shrimp, a few neurogenic snails and a pleco. 
 

good or bad idea? Better ideas?

Algae outbreak?! What algae? Man my tank has more algae than this permanently let alone when I get an outbreak haha personally I think your tank looks amazing and a little bit of algae adds to the affect. 

Otocinclus are my favourite algae eaters, they don't really eat hair or black beard algae but they do a good job of keeping surfaces in my tank, especially and most importantly my plant leaves, clean. 

On 9/25/2021 at 8:45 AM, Odd Duck said:

I have at least one Amano left of the 5 I put in the current 20 long pea puffer tank.  We’ll see how many (if any) come out of the woodwork after I move the puffers into the 29 gallon.  I do plan to add Amanos to the 29, since I won’t be adding any otos.  This time they’ll go in before the puffers do, and I’m still waiting for settling and plant growth.  I haven’t found any dead shrimp carcasses in the 20, but I also haven’t seen any more than one shrimp at a time in months.

Having more than the minimum space for your puffer shoal seems to help them be better behaved, but the personality of both the individual and the group makes a big difference.

Will Pea puffers bully oto's? I had considered putting some in with my hypothetical pea puffer colony as shrimp and snails would just be dinner right. 

[Jennifer V]

On 9/25/2021 at 2:52 AM, KentFishFanUK said:

 

Will Pea puffers bully oto's? I had considered putting some in with my hypothetical pea puffer colony as shrimp and snails would just be dinner right. 

It depends. Some people have great luck with a shoal of pea puffers in a tank with other inhabitants. Others, like me, cannot put anything else in the tank. I think @Odd Duckis right when saying that the more space they have, the less likely they'll pick at or kill other fish and inverts, but I do think snails are strictly snacks no matter what. 

[Odd Duck]

On 9/25/2021 at 3:52 AM, KentFishFanUK said:

Algae outbreak?! What algae? Man my tank has more algae than this permanently let alone when I get an outbreak haha personally I think your tank looks amazing and a little bit of algae adds to the affect. 

Otocinclus are my favourite algae eaters, they don't really eat hair or black beard algae but they do a good job of keeping surfaces in my tank, especially and most importantly my plant leaves, clean. 

Will Pea puffers bully oto's? I had considered putting some in with my hypothetical pea puffer colony as shrimp and snails would just be dinner right. 

I haven’t seen mine bully them but I appear to have less of them than I did.  When I caught the overabundance of male puffers in the first “shoal” in the 20 long, I also caught one oto and since I didn’t really like how they were behaving (hiding most of the time as opposed to how they were out and swimming about freely before I added the puffers) I put it in the 100 gallon.  There were 5 still left in there and now I only see 2-3 and one looks a bit thinner than I’d like.  I haven’t found bodies, but, . . . . . pea puffers.  Plus I still have a few scuds and definitely still have snails in there despite the pea puffers.

I’m more OK with shrimp potentially being snacked on than otos.  The otos are just so darn cute.  I like the shrimp, too, but they seem less likely to be mentally affected than the rather sad otos.  When I do see the shrimp, it is out and eating boldly.  I just think it (they) has (have) a lot of hiding places so I don’t see it (them?) reliably.

I’m hoping that having the Amanos already in there so I don’t add them while the puffers are watching (that was far more exciting then I intended) will give them a much better chance of survival.  I don’t want to make them puffer snacks, after all.  If they’re an existing feature of the tank (like plants) when the puffers are added, I’m hoping they’ll be less likely to be prey.

I’ll keep everybody posted when I do move the puffers, but I haven’t even added Amanos, yet, and it will be at least a few weeks after that before I add puffers.  I’ve got to build more aufswuch before Amanos go in.  Plus I think my snails have bitten through some of my thread used to tie on my moss.  If I put Amanos in now, my moss will be all over the place.  Since my threads are cut, I need to give the moss time to attach and grow, so I’m looking at another 3-4 weeks before I can consider trying to pluck broken threads out of moss.  🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️  I can’t leave broken threads to become puffer foreign bodies.  When I bought this thread I didn’t realize how thin it was or that ramshorn or bladder snails would be able or inclined to bite through it.  It’s 100% cotton, so we’ll see what it looks like over the next month.  Maybe it will disintegrate for me so I don’t need to try to pluck it all out.  That would be very tedious!

[Torrey]

On 9/25/2021 at 8:43 AM, Odd Duck said:

(that was far more exciting then I intended)

My spouse just asked why I guffawed🤣

Are you always the master of understatement?

On 9/25/2021 at 8:43 AM, Odd Duck said:

Since my threads are cut, I need to give the moss time to attach and grow, so I’m looking at another 3-4 weeks before I can consider trying to pluck broken threads out of moss.  🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️  I can’t leave broken threads to become puffer foreign bodies.  When I bought this thread I didn’t realize how thin it was or that ramshorn or bladder snails would be able or inclined to bite through it.  It’s 100% cotton, so we’ll see what it looks like over the next month.  Maybe it will disintegrate for me so I don’t need to try to pluck it all out.  That would be very tedious!

Apparently yes, you are definitely the master of understatement. 

I grow my moss between the plastic craft canvas, and cut to size I need. 

A dab of superglue on the canvas makes it stick pretty much anywhere, without damaging the moss. Occasionally I will carefully remove the top canvas, but most of the time I don't bother, and it guarantees that the moss always has a foundation to grow back from, even if a new tenant (err, fish or turtle) eats it all the way down to the canvas.

[KentFishFanUK]

On 9/25/2021 at 7:22 PM, Torrey said:

My spouse just asked why I guffawed🤣

Are you always the master of understatement?

Apparently yes, you are definitely the master of understatement. 

I grow my moss between the plastic craft canvas, and cut to size I need. 

A dab of superglue on the canvas makes it stick pretty much anywhere, without damaging the moss. Occasionally I will carefully remove the top canvas, but most of the time I don't bother, and it guarantees that the moss always has a foundation to grow back from, even if a new tenant (err, fish or turtle) eats it all the way down to the canvas.

This sounds like it might be genius but I can't picture what it is exactly, what is plastic craft canvas? 

[Torrey]

On 9/25/2021 at 2:38 PM, KentFishFanUK said:

This sounds like it might be genius but I can't picture what it is exactly, what is plastic craft canvas? 

This is the smallest canvas I buy, I also get 12" × 18", and I buy a variety of colors.

I use these to make my "plant-in-a-box" so that the turtle doesn't eat my plants (I underestimated the determination of my ornate ornata to get **into** the plant in a box if I have a bad flare and don't change out the plant in time, so I have to make a new one), I use it to make custom sized UGF, and rolled up you can put them on end ==> fill with dirt ==> stick stem plants in the sides and plant plants that need **strong light** on top (I will be doing this to create a few "mesas" in my 4')

I made floating moss tubes out of canvas scraps for my bettas, and they loved lounging in them as they aged.

Now my danio fry and male guppy/endler crosses use them to play hide and seek.

I put straws under a scrap of canvas, and test outdoor mosses to see which ones will convert to aquarium living best, too.

So far, the moss on the right that came from an acequia is growing the best.

The duckweed liking the canvas was a surprise that I have capitalized on, as a means of keeping duckweed from overtaking tanks.

Cut a piece of canvas in a pleasing shape, add sealed straws or airline tubing underneath to act like a flotation device, and the duckweed stays reasonably well contained.

Works with my water lettuce, too.

 

 

This one is still a work in progress, as I am looking for a flowering plant for my spouse's 4' tank. The plastic canvas is supporting the pothos for now, and in the spring I will add more dirt to the back (unless someone changes their mind. Apparently the baby guppy fry hide in the canvas and eat back there, so this may stay a permanent guppy nursery🤷‍♂️)

 

[Odd Duck]

On 9/25/2021 at 1:22 PM, Torrey said:

My spouse just asked why I guffawed🤣

Are you always the master of understatement?

Apparently yes, you are definitely the master of understatement. 

I grow my moss between the plastic craft canvas, and cut to size I need. 

A dab of superglue on the canvas makes it stick pretty much anywhere, without damaging the moss. Occasionally I will carefully remove the top canvas, but most of the time I don't bother, and it guarantees that the moss always has a foundation to grow back from, even if a new tenant (err, fish or turtle) eats it all the way down to the canvas.

I tend heavily toward sarcasm, but try to rein it in for online discussions since it doesn’t always come across as intended without inflections available.  😉 😆 

The puffers didn’t actually attack the Amanos in front of me, but lots of chasing ensued and I thought for a while that I would need to grab a net.  I wasn’t even sure who I should be scooping!  It settled down reasonably quickly but I have enough stress in my life, I don’t need to double my heart rate over shrimp and puffer, erm, . . . . . . . . interaction.

 

I was hoping to get at least a couple months of thread life until moss could get a good grip and grow enough to cover the threads so puffers wouldn’t try to bite at/eat the thread.  But no, apparently that was wishful thinking.

I’ll get a pic tomorrow of my now foot loose and fancy free threads.  I got a whopping 12 days out of my hours of tying threads over moss and around branches.  🙄  next time I’ll try for a more heavy duty thread, but I’ve got yards and yards of it since it was the only spool that was 100% cotton and reasonably priced.  🤷🏻‍♀️  This is what I get for being a cheapskate!

[Torrey]

On 9/25/2021 at 10:50 PM, Odd Duck said:

.  I got a whopping 12 days out of my hours of tying threads over moss and around branches.  🙄

So, about an hour per day?🤔

 

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

Yeah, I had that experience. 

Once.

Now I may use almost as much gorilla glue as MD, and should probably buy stock in plastic craft canvas, lol