fresh water clean up crew

years ago i was into fresh water tanks but they were cichlid tanks. my brother in law has set up a 29 gallon planted tank and is having problems keeping his plants alive. he has a over the back filter and dual 40 watt 50/50's on it. he says that his plants look like they get algea on them. can this harm the plants in photosynthisis. and if so what kind of snails or shrimp should he use. he does have a pleco right know that really only hangs out on the glass. and i have used snails in the only community tank i owned and in a few months there were hundreds of snails. any help would be great ;D

 

Malaysian Trumpet snails are a good choice for a planted aquarium. They will eat algae but not plants. They still reproduce though so you will need to pluck them out every once and awhile.

I have only tried to keep plants once in an aquarium with no success. I think you brother may need some more lighting. Does he use any type of plant food?

I would suggest he snail dip his plants before putting them in the aquarium. Some snails will nip away at his lovely plants.

 

I was getting algae on my leaves until I started doing more water changes and added a Hagen co2 injector. Now they look great. Still, old leaves will get algae on them when they are dying.

 

You can also go for a Bristlenose pleco. They are the best algae eater I know of.

 

thanks all for your help. he is getting that hagen co2 reactor. and i think i can talk him into a weekly water change that may help. as far as fertiliser, i know he does use some but what kind i dont know

 

Some good algae eaters are Amano shrimp, Simese Algae Eaters (SAE), Bristlenose Plecos (they stay fairly small too unlike the common pleco), and Red Cherry shrimp.

 

Otos are great small algae eaters, generally 1 per 10G. SAEs are the only fish to eat black beard algae and staghorn, but they may eat fined leafed plants. Shrimps (ie. Amano, Cherry, Tiger, etc.) are great for green thread and hair algae.

What type of bulbs is he using? Actinic induces algae to grow, plants cannot absorb blue lighting. I recommend he switch over to PC or better T5, NO flourscent is not efficient enough for growing plants.

 

I agree with Raul. I would run PC lighting with 6700K and/or 10,000K bulbs. I don't recommend 50/50 lighting on a planted tank.