Need help with cleaning

[jarrodaden]

I have a few different cleaning issues.

Green muck on the back wall of the tank. When the group says "algae" I assume they are talking about this. Growing up, when we said algae that meant clumps of green plant floating on the surface.

What fish (or cridders) are best for green muck on the walls?

White scaling or residue on the glass. How do I get this off? I assume the answer on this one is elbow grease.

Brown muck on the pump intake inside the tank. Again, is there a cridder to help with this?

For what it is worth, I already have clown loaches, albino pleco, and black plecos in the tank. The black plecos are bigger in size and lazy. Worthless... The albino stays busy but seems to favor cleaning to plants and rocks in the tank.

Thanks for any help.

[mgarrido]

Otocinclus aka "oto catfish" at least 10 for your tank



and try to rid of those common plecos.

[Mzungu]

Green muck on the back of the tank - Otocinclus or Bristlenose plecos are best for this.

White residue - is this hard water staining? It's outside of the tank, right? Vinegar helps clean this stuff off very well.

Muck in the filter intake - bacteria/waste/etc. Nothing will help this besides turning off the filter, removing the intake, and rinsing it out. Get some pipe cleaners if it's stubborn. :) I have to do this every few months, especially with planted tanks (which all of my tanks are). :)

[armthehomeless]

I completely agree with mzungu and mgarrido. Another option to getting the algae off the wall is just using a razor blade.

The white residue sounds like hard water stains to me too. You can use a razor blade on this too.

[paranoid1123]

Algae eaters work great. Dustin has some at haw. They work much better than most plecos(I don't know about the BN don't have any).

[imagirlgeek]

I completely agree with mzungu and mgarrido. Another option to getting the algae off the wall is just using a razor blade.

The white residue sounds like hard water stains to me too. You can use a razor blade on this too.

+1

I'm all about the razor blade.