# best fish for cleaning glass?



## shrimpy1 (Mar 29, 2006)

Hi All,

I have green algae on the tank glass. What's the best fish that will keep my tank glass clean. 

I already have SAE's, cherry shrimp, amano shrimp and small snails. They take care of business everywhere else, but algae eventually develops on the glass and they don't do much about it. The SAE's and shrimps do pick at the glass, I guess to trim down the algae that gets longer, but they can't make the glass clear.

Is there a fish that will make the glass really clean, or clean enough so I can see clearly? Would plecos or ottos do a better job?

Now I know I can easily scrape the glass, but my tank is big (100g) and I do want to add a fish or two.

TIA
-shrimpy1


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## jhoover (Oct 17, 2004)

Bristlenose Pleco


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## Skelley (Mar 4, 2006)

I had a common pleco which didn't work, but my snails do what they can.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I agree, Bristles or Rubbernoses usually do a good job.

The best overall glass cleaner I've come across so far is the Nerite snail, and they fit into almost any tank (unless you have loaches).  They leave the glass spotless.
In a 100 gallon you'd probably need 10 or 15 of them, though.


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## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

You probably have Green Dust Algae. Supposedly if you leave it alone for 3-4 weeks, it'll die off and once you wipe it away it'll never come back. Some people report that this method doesn't work for them, but if you want to pinch pennies, then it might be worth a go

And yeah, I also hear that Nerites more than earn their keep by keeping the glass clean


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## toddnbecka (Sep 20, 2006)

Only problem w/nerites is that they lay eggs (that won't hatch in FW) everywhere. BN pleco's are at least as effective, and easier to clean up after.


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## newguy (Mar 18, 2006)

toddnbecka said:


> Only problem w/nerites is that they lay eggs (that won't hatch in FW) everywhere. BN pleco's are at least as effective, and easier to clean up after.


What's the problem with the nerite eggs if they dont hatch? it's just a couple tiny white dots on the plants. Actually makes it look interesting.

I agree nerite snails are THE best friend a planted tank can have, they keep many different types of algae under control and breakdown dead matters/wastes, not to mention very hardy and requires NO maintainence. My tank was an algae infested mess after setting up, you literally can barely see the plants as everything including the substrate was covered by brown beard type algae. I dumped 14 nerite snails in there (no other changes were made), within 2 weeks the tank was SPOTLESS (see my sig) and remained so until this day. My snails are still there working hard.

The biggest problem i had with nerite snails are they like to climb out of the tank top (i have an open top), most times they just climb back in after a while but once a while 1 would go off the edge of the tank and falls to the floor, which is a bit annoying.


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## @[email protected] (Jul 10, 2006)

My nerites climb back in 95% of the time. Are they that smart and know where the water is or is it just luck?
Anyway, I found that if the water is very soft, their shell tend to crack. Happened to one of mine.


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