# Cleaning Crew



## TeeItUp (Mar 18, 2004)

Just curious as to what you have in your planted tanks for your cleaning crew? Please post quantity and gallon tank.


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## Ace (Dec 10, 2003)

80 gallon 4 feet tank


30 Otos


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## trenac (Feb 15, 2004)

20G long...5 Amanos & 1 Tiger shrimp

20G high...3 Otto's

12G...2 Otto's


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## unirdna (Jan 22, 2004)

46g bowfront

4 SAEs
4 Ottos
6 Amanos


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## scalare altum (Apr 5, 2004)

No one here a big bristlnose pleco fan? :? 

-Joel


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## Kris (Feb 27, 2004)

30 gallon tall 

5 ottos
2 shrimp (indeterminate type)
1 candystripe pleco


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## rumples riot (May 29, 2003)

90 gallon

8 siamensis
6 corys
2 clown loaches

and Paul :wink:


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## Tonyd (Jan 22, 2004)

50 gallon

4 SAEs
6 Ottos
10 Amano shrimp


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## mm12463 (Nov 22, 2003)

20g long - 3 otos, 1 ancistrus species, 2 saes and 1 AFF
10g - 3 otps, half dozen cherry red shrimp
10g - 2 otos, 3-4 cherries will move from the other 10 g


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

40G breeder

4 Ottos
1 SAE


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## compulsion (Mar 2, 2004)

scalare altum said:


> No one here a big bristlnose pleco fan? :?
> 
> -Joel


50 gallon
2x bronze corys
4x kuhli loaches
4x SAE's
2x bristle nose plecs


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## shalu (Jan 16, 2003)

100g:

5 SAEs
12-18 Ottos(can't see them all at once)
1 bristlenose pleco
1 rubber mouth pleco
1 clown pleco
1 candy stripe pleco
1 american-flag fish(for hair algae)

Haven't wiped the tank walls for almost 2 months. Yeah, algae be gone!


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## George Willms (Jul 25, 2003)

12g:
1 otto 
2 Japonica
I don't know how many Cherry Red Srimp
12 green dwarf shrimp

29g:
3 ottos
6 japonica
unknown amount of red cherry shrimp
2 sae's

45g:
2 SAE's 
1 otto
2 bristlenose plecos
1 rubberlip pleco


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## Leipo (Jan 28, 2004)

29G:

3 Oto's
1 SAE
1 Japonica (I think, haven't seen the critter for ages :? )
3 Red-tails (I only see 1 at a time so I am not sure about these either :? )

and man oh man do I have lots of algae :x


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## Mustang5L5 (Feb 1, 2004)

38Gal Tall (24")

6 Ottos
Snails (Ramshorn, Malayan Trumpet, pond, Mystery, Golden Inca)


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## Basilisk (Mar 1, 2004)

46G

5 Otocinlus
1 Rubbernose pleco
1 Royal panaque
1 Farlowella
1 Banjo catfish
1 Ghost shrimp

Odd flat sided snails, all called Bastard.


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

55 gallon

3 ottos
50 Ramshorns
20 pondsnails
20 MTS so far
4 cories
5 ghost shrimp
3 amanos
2 black mollies


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## audiotaylor (Apr 2, 2004)

At the moment, all my 25 gallon tank consists of are cleaners. 9 ottos, 2 cories, and a few nerite snails.
-David


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## lil-fishy (Jan 30, 2004)

29 Gallon:

2 Otto's
1 Japonica shrimp
1 red tail
bunch of MTS, but they seem to stay in the gravel
I had 2 Ramshorns, but they ate my Anubias to shreds. They then were thrown into the terrarrium.
2 SAE's


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I found that controlled fertilizer dosing and lots of growing plants is the best way to battle algae.

I have Otos and ghost shrimps in my tanks. Also, a False SAE and a bristlenose in the large tank. I had a second bristlenose, but the two of them would make my swords look like madacascar lace plants :evil: I moved it into my jail tank. They do clean the windows though.


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## TeeItUp (Mar 18, 2004)

Wasserpest said:


> I found that controlled fertilizer dosing and lots of growing plants is the best way to battle algae.


Would you elaborate some more please?


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## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

Basically if your nutrients are in balance and your plants are growing quickly enough to use it then your algae will not be able to survive as the plants will outcompete it for space, nutrients, light, etc...


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## TeeItUp (Mar 18, 2004)

GDominy said:


> Basically if your nutrients are in balance and your plants are growing quickly enough to use it then your algae will not be able to survive as the plants will outcompete it for space, nutrients, light, etc...


 What about micros like Plantex, how do you tell if that is in-balance? Some say iron test kit but many say don't waste your money on them because they are unreliable. I made a post asking about Plantex dosing and the result were very diverse. I have the macros down but Plantex is another thing. Thanks


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## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

I wouldnt be the one to ask.. heh... I own two test kits... High and low range Ph testers.. thats it.

*waits for the scathing remarks*


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I am not familiar with Plantex dosing either, but there is a lot of discussion to be found here (search button).

Most micros you can't really economically test for. I would go by instructions on the bottle (or recommendations for Plantex etc), by observing plants (and algae), and do adjustments based on things like high light/low light, dense/sparse planting, small/large water changes and so on.

If your tank uses lots of macros, you could assume that the plants need some healthy doses of micros as well.


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## ^iMp^ (Oct 12, 2003)

20g (tall), unheated paludarium:

2 red cherry shrimp
2 amano shrimp
1 bamboo shrimp
1 hillstream loach
1237124371230712741724112 tiny ramshorn snails
13212381281281832 small pond snails

The hillstream loach mostly eats diatoms (never seen it eat anything else). The snails do most of the work and the amanos are good at cleaning up after the fish (I occasionally see one walking around munching on a fish flake). The cherrys are pretty, but I don't think I have enough for them to really have an effect on the odd-ball algae in my tank (mostly hair algae).

I want to get some more red cherry and amano shrimp, but my LFSs haven't had them in stock in months.

^iMp^


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## Georgiadawgger (Apr 23, 2004)

Just my 2 cents...after reading up on the board about how to get rid of green spot algae (really the only algae that annoys me) I went to $hitsmart and got two Rubberlipped plecos. After about two weeks I didn't notice a thing...they pretty much stayed sucked onto my glass or filter tubes. Then I noticed two of my six Anubias hastifolia leaves were stripped spotless of GSA. I mean, they are incredible!! I wish I had a dig cam to take pictures to compare (spent all my money on girlfriend, fish, plants, etc), but man they do a great job! Whoever recommended them (Wasser I think) was right! Four leaves left for the guys to clean up and I'll be REALLY happy.


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## TeeItUp (Mar 18, 2004)

Georgiadawgger said:


> Just my 2 cents...after reading up on the board about how to get rid of green spot algae (really the only algae that annoys me) I went to $hitsmart and got two Rubberlipped plecos. After about two weeks I didn't notice a thing...they pretty much stayed sucked onto my glass or filter tubes. Then I noticed two of my six Anubias hastifolia leaves were stripped spotless of GSA. I mean, they are incredible!! I wish I had a dig cam to take pictures to compare (spent all my money on girlfriend, fish, plants, etc), but man they do a great job! Whoever recommended them (Wasser I think) was right! Four leaves left for the guys to clean up and I'll be REALLY happy.


Yea I took that advice and bought 2 and they really are doing a great job.


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## bullosa (May 24, 2004)

30G Tank

9 SAE
1 Chinese Algae Eater (the class bully)
2 Kuhli Loach
3 Malayan Shrimp
I Coralife TurboTwist3X UV sterillizer

I timed my lights out for 2 hours midday to break algae growth advantage.

Tank Temp 26C; PH 7.0; KH 3.0; Filter Fluval 404; Lights 1st Row 55W 8000K PL, 2nd Row 36W 6500K PL; ADA Aquasoil substrate with JBL Floralpur enriched base; DIY CO2; Fertilizers ADA Green Brighty, Brighty K and ECA with SERA's root tabs.


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## SueNH (Feb 25, 2004)

29 gallon
2 sae
3 ottos
4 corys
5 ghost shrimp
4 apple snails
a host of lesser snails


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## corigan (Feb 22, 2004)

bullosa said:


> I timed my lights out for 2 hours midday to break algae growth advantage.


 I've seen quite a bit of debate on this subject. Some say it doesn't help at all and is more detrimental to the plants, while others live buy it. With that big of a cleaning crew and a uv sterilizer, do you really feel that you need to black out the lights for a few hrs? Have you seen great improvement over the condition of your algae growth when doing this? Not to say that method doesn't work, just curious discussing it with someone who uses it. I noticed looking over you tank stats that your PH is 7 and KH of 3. That is 9ppm of co2. With that low of a co2 level I could see having algae issues. 

I don't have all that big of a cleaning crew in my 55g (3 saes, 5 ottos, 2 corys, rubberlip pleco), but I really don't have any algae to speak of except some green spot here and there, but I still haven't ever scraped the glass in 4 months of having it setup. I just have my pressurized co2 in at about 23-25ppm of Co2, and keep my Nitrate/Phosphate ratio at 10:1 and have little problems with algae.

Matt


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## bullosa (May 24, 2004)

Hi Corigan,

Thx for the pointers...I have been trying to peg my tank PH to 6.8 with a KH of 4 but have not been able to keep them there. Still working on balancing it. I will repost later on my experimentation on the lighting off at midday. At this point I do not know if they make any difference except reduce heat....lol.


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## FobbyBobby (Mar 7, 2004)

just wondering...do you guys with pond snails notice that there is a lot of freaking snail poo everywhere...or do they clean your guys' tanks...cause for me they are more of a polluter than a cleanup crew becuase they poo all over my substrate and its very unattractive..and after gravel vaccing it all the poo comes back in like 2-3 days


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## tombsc (Nov 24, 2003)

49G
5 ottos
4 Bristlenoses
I tried shrimp but they all died 
Still have a fair bit of algae but my parameters are all over the place at the moment


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## Scorpion (Oct 10, 2003)

My crew was eaten by my 9" Bala shark. I will have to re-stock on my amanos.


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## edo (May 12, 2004)

y dont u guys just toss in like, 30 plecos. basic ones. thatd be cool. haha. maybe even 50. i should breed plecos just for that. anybody interested in buying? jk


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## gctc (Apr 9, 2004)

75 gal 

5 SAE
7 Oto's
3 Clown Loach- Bozo,Casper and Bud

Thinking of getting some Red Cherry shrimp and a Bristlenose

Greg


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## Nerf (May 3, 2004)

25 Gallon

10 algae Shrimp
3 Cherry Shrimp
3 Otto Catts
1 Butterfly Loach
1 Whip Tail


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## conny1908 (Oct 26, 2003)

130 g: two bristlenose plecos

55 g: 5 otos

46 g bowfront: one bristlenose pleco; six corycats


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## Tres (Jan 27, 2004)

46 gallon bowfront with 5 inches substrate, overgrown with plants:

9 otto's
2 clown plecostomus
2 sae (mature)
968,351 Trumpet snails (Give or take a few)

Oh, the 30 Fat Cardinals and 4 Blue rams help a bit with house cleaning as well. None of my fish seem picky


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## Poohbee (May 6, 2004)

72g bowfront

7 SAE's
2 Amanos
3-4 Otto
4-5 Panda Cory cats
3 Albino Cory Cat
1 Albino Pleco
a snail here and there....


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## Ibn (Nov 19, 2003)

10 gallon:

20+ ramshorn
4 amano 
3 cherry reds 
2 otos


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## pphx459 (Jun 25, 2004)

75 Gallon:

2xSterbai Cory
3xPanda Cory
10xSAE
12xAmano Shrimp
Unknown # of Ottos


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## Rex Grigg (Dec 10, 2002)

The problem I see with some of these stocking lists is that IMHO you are way overstocked with SAEs. Those guys get big, and they grow pretty fast. And they are almost impossible to get out of a planted tank. I have learned my lesson the hard way a couple of times about them. In fact I currently only have two in my house and they are in my 55 gallon tank. They are each around 5" long and lay around like logs most of the day.


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## Aqua Dave (Feb 23, 2004)

I was starting to think I was way *understocked* with cleaning fish in my 150. I have 4 SAEs and 2 malaysian algae eaters (Look almost exactly like SAE's, but are bronze colored. Local fish store had 'em once and I've never seen them again.) All 6 are adult sized and a good 4-6 inches each. They do a pretty good job cleaning algae. I could see maybe a couple more, but I think 10 would be too many.

I have 5 cories to keep the ground clean. I want more, but seem to have trouble keeping them for some reason.

My 2 gouramis pick at algae on the plants as well. They seem to love hair algae.

I've been eyeing a sailfin rubbernose pleco at a LFS, but I just got finished killing off BGA and am waiting for my tank to be stable for a few weeks.

David


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## John P. (Apr 10, 2004)

See below in my sig.


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## pphx459 (Jun 25, 2004)

Rex, the ones I purchased were babies. I needed many at the moment to clear up my bba. Now that I have no algae, they are not growing as fast. I do see your point and only after I had them, I realized how much they eat! I have 1 that is about 5 inches but I thought that they will grow to that size after 1 year. Looks like I'll be learning the hard way.



Rex Grigg said:


> The problem I see with some of these stocking lists is that IMHO you are way overstocked with SAEs. Those guys get big, and they grow pretty fast. And they are almost impossible to get out of a planted tank. I have learned my lesson the hard way a couple of times about them. In fact I currently only have two in my house and they are in my 55 gallon tank. They are each around 5" long and lay around like logs most of the day.


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