# algae



## celticsfan13 (Nov 7, 2010)

hi i am16 and have a small 5 gallon tank and have a glofish and 1 neon rainbow fish
i have 2 small plants and i am trying 2 figure out wat kind of cleaner fish would b a best fit for my tank can any1 help me out?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Do you have an algae problem?


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## Martini2108 (Jul 23, 2010)

for a 5 gal try some ghost shrimp or snails (snails will get to big for 5g eventually) you could also go with 1 baby bristlenose plecto (will also get to big for tank soon) best bet about 5 or 10 ghost shrimp should be nice. Also the gold fish will get way to big for a 5 gal eventually. Good luck though.


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## celticsfan13 (Nov 7, 2010)

yes and i am probably going 2 upgrade to a 20 gallon soon.
and thx


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## Martini2108 (Jul 23, 2010)

20 gal will be good for 1 single goldfish for a while, also open many more options when it comes to cleaners. you could put more than 1 goldfish into a 20G to.


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## mfgann (Oct 21, 2010)

Martini2108 said:


> 20 gal will be good for 1 single goldfish for a while, also open many more options when it comes to cleaners. you could put more than 1 goldfish into a 20G to.


I think the OP said "glofish". A 20G should be plenty big. Ghost shrimp will be chep, but I think they do more scavenging than algae cleanup. I think Red Cherry Shrimp would do more for the algae, though I'm not sure how well they would make it in in that tank, and are a little more costly. 

If you can get some shrimp, I'd try them first.. if they don't succeed, fall back to snails.. maybe Malaysian Trumpet Snails. If it IS a goldfish in there, he will probably enjoy snacking on the snails and shrimp.

Good luck!


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## Dafo (Aug 9, 2010)

Hi. Hope I am not assuming wrongly but you probably are beginner. I think you probably have a problem with visible algae that are impossible to be clleaned by shrimps, anyway algae eating fishes are too big for that aquarium. In aquariums of that size the parameters can change very quickly,.. think the only way to get rid of algae is to find a reason (water characteristic) for the growth. - try to make a water testing. What kind of algae do you have?


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## Martini2108 (Jul 23, 2010)

ahh so it does say glofish lol well then yes a 20g will be plenty big for him. And for visible algae you could go with some algae killing chemicals API has some. Now I have never personally used any type of algae killing chemical but it is supposedly safe for fish, hopefully someone who has can comment on it.


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## Dafo (Aug 9, 2010)

Hi. Actually I was not talking about chemicals- which I also do not use and I am adverse to use of chemicals. In most cases the best way is to do partial water changes till the parameter (either phosphates or nitrate,..) is within the values that enables to algaes to grow so agressively. For some algaes even the swich off of the lights for some day in enough to kill them. This absolutely is the best philosophy to an algea problem because you remove the reason for algae growth and not temporarily hidden it by chemicals.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

Wait a sec folks...first off....let's try to determine from the OP if there is in fact an algae issue or just anticipating one.

Second...if there is algae...is the tank new...maybe diatoms come to mind? Really need to know what we are dealing with.

Third ... and most important ... no chems ... especially in that small of a tank.


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## Martini2108 (Jul 23, 2010)

As the other 2 have said I agree no chems should be used was just informing that they are avail if he wanted to try. But I hardly ever use chems only ones I use water conditioner, ick, anti-fungal. That's it and that's all I recommend. And I believe OP already said he had an algae issue.


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## celticsfan13 (Nov 7, 2010)

i do have an algae problem and i just tried getting a very young pleco and a small blue mystery snail and it has almost completely taken care of my problem in about a week
and i wouldnt say im a beginner i have had a tank 4 About 2.5 years and now have the hang of it and will b upgrading soon thx 4 the help


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