Fish Tank Cleaning Secrets- Revealed!

A plecostomus certainly is the best option in fighting algae, but in some cases it isn’t feasible.

I had a small pleco in my 30 gallon aquarium as well as a featherfin synodonis catfish. The synodonis is a good 6" long and apparently, quite territorial. When the pleco got to be around 4" or so, the synodonis regularly beat the crap out of him. I tried removing the pleco on numerous occasions, letting him heal in a hospital tank, and re-introducing him–and within a few weeks, have to take him back out again.

That pleco now has a nice 10gal to himself (shared with some mellow glass cats). The 30gal, however, is becoming algae-overridden. My solution has been to use those algae tabs they sell in pet stores. Clean the tank, do a water change, and drop in the algae tab–and voila! No new algae growth.

Bleach is not recommended. Fortunately, goldfish are fairly hardy stock.

A friend that is heavy into fish collecting (14 tanks right now) swears by Oxyclean to clean his tanks and equipment.

Depends on what kind of algae. There are at least half a dozen different kinds of algae-like stuff (including true algae, cyanobacteria, and diatoms) that can grow in a fewshwater fishtank. Different water conditions and light levels encourage different kinds of algae growth.