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Hi all,
I am a new user.
I have a new aquarium, it measure 80x60x45cm selfmade.
It's layout is a "South-American aquarium"
water parameters are:
Temp 27°C pH 6.8, KH 3, NO3 10ppm.
as fish there are a couple of Ram with some fry and 7 Otocinclus vittatus as quite new mate.
It contains one big piece of wood which is covered with organic matter and algae as you can se from the picture.
algaes are moving to plants too.
I would like to know if there is any kind of pleco I could put inside which will love to remove this and will peacefully live in this high planted tank with high lighting

it looks like blue algae, and that is not something any pleco would like

In my experience, Panaqolus will strip algae off wood quite effectively. They won't necessarily eat the algae, they're more interested in the wood underneath. So you would need to siphon up the remains (and the pleco poo). Panaqolus are also a suitable size for the tank, and would be fine with those water parameters. I have L397s but there's quite a choice of species. Here's an one of my youngsters, with evidence of his work on the algae-covered wood behind. A year later, the fish is an adult and much of the wood in the tank is algae-free.

may Otocinclus help as algae eater in this case? I saw them working actively only on tank glasses, not on wood or plants

It depends on the type of algae too. They're not that interested in hairy algae.
In my experience, Hypoptopoma ('giant oto') are excellent algae eaters on glass, wood and plants, but they don't keep on top of hair algae.

ok, thank you, so may I first need to get rid of that algae by my own.. then let Otos control glasses and the root from other green algae?

Hi all,

Bas Pels wrote: ↑03 Oct 2017, 20:10it looks like blue algae, and that is not something any pleco would like

That was my first thought as well, but on the enlarged image it looks like it is Green Algae (Chlorophyta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophyta)), so appropriate fish should eat it.

I think is a good suggestion, but if you can't find a small

Panaqolus

spp. then one of the smaller

Ancistrus

spp. might be another option.

cheers Darrel

Hi all,
this is another picture of the same tank.
they seems, in my opinion, green hair algae.
I am a bit worry about taking a Panaqolus cause the tank is highly planted and I don't know if it prefer algae to plants.

Panaqolus will not bother the plants if there is wood in the tank.

At least not much

good news:
a few of my Oto are starting to eat on the wood..
may be adding more oto will end my worry, 7 in 180L may be are not enough
in the next days I will watch more deeper their work

Hi,
as promised here a new pic of the driftwood
now there are some visible cleaned road made by Otos.
I'm sorry for the bad quality and the tank glass full of algae
the picture shown is rotated, but if you open it you can see it in the right orientation

dw1305 wrote: ↑04 Oct 2017, 11:54 then one of the smaller

Ancistrus

spp. might be another option.

I would aim this route if the oto's dont work well enough. I had a 33 gallon XL (48"x12"x12") full of algae on the glass. I added 6 baby common bristlenose and it was clean in a day or two.

nvcichlids wrote: ↑06 Oct 2017, 19:05

dw1305 wrote: ↑04 Oct 2017, 11:54 then one of the smaller

Ancistrus

spp. might be another option.

I would aim this route if the oto's dont work well enough. I had a 33 gallon XL (48"x12"x12") full of algae on the glass. I added 6 baby common bristlenose and it was clean in a day or two.

I am thinking to add more Otos, perhaps 7 in 180L highly planted are not enough.. or would I really consider to add a new pleco species: like Panaqolus or ancistrus?

Hi all,

Daniael wrote: ↑06 Oct 2017, 19:17 I am thinking to add more Otos, perhaps 7 in 180L highly planted are not enough.. or would I really consider to add a new pleco species: like Panaqolus or ancistrus?

I think

Otocinclus

eat a pretty limited range of algae (mainly diatoms). They might eat a range of algal sporelings, but they don't eat much green algae once it has grown into threads.

An alternative might be a better option, but you will need others to suggest if there are any other alternative fish.

I have Red Ramshorn snails, but they don't like really soft water, and mine never grow very large due to shell erosion in the older shell whorls.

Again they browse the sporelings and not the older algae.

cheers Darrel

I concurr, I got 4 Otocinclus for a tank with algae on the foreshield, some 4 week ago.

The fish are doing well, I even think they´ve grown a bit. But the algae? Still the same. No growth in surface, or thickness, but nothing has gone.

Untill I helped them a bit. Now they have more area to prevent algae from starting

uhm it seems I have to really think about adding some Panaqolus to the party.
I am not an expert with pleco in general, and this is only the first week I kept Otocinclus in my tank,
anyway even if half of them care only about glasses and I am not sure about their good job for algae on glass, I saw some of them on the driftwood, and I can see an objective difference between before and after they past on it: there are visible areas of wood cleaned from algae.
This kind of algae have grown on the organic matter which covered the driftwood for a entire month or even 2 months before I bought and put this 7 Otocinclus inside the tank. I don't know if their behavior is uncommon, but for now I am seeing some little positive difference.
About the glasses, If they are not doing enough, do I have to realize to clean them by my own or may I find any "natural help" for keeping it cleaned?

Thank all of you for helping and for your answers

Hi all,
may be this picture explain better the work made by my 7 Otocinclus vittatus.
Again I'm sorry for the low quality picture.
ps: the coloured pieces you can see in the driftwood on the second picture are some flakes I gave to the Ram.. before taking the photo