Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone ever used an algae eatter in their tank?ANd does it work?j/w(I havent dont wanna take any chances)

I personally haven't.. I find that when I do water changes about once a week (just recently been feeding them in another tank - about 5 inches away lol) that if you just scrub away the algae it seems to be fine. If you feed your turtles in another tank (in my case their old home) then let them eat, make a mess, poop, and put them back in that the new tank will stay pretty darn clean

Hm so yea I would reccomend just water changing and while doing it scrub away some algae and take that bad water out, place new one in and its good as new

I havent experienced any algae yet but i was just curious

Plecostomus won't hurt the turtles.
But sometimes the turtles eat them.
Common plecos also get quite large so you have to figure in tank space for them. I've seen a few as long as my forearm. Smaller species like the rubber pleco aren't hard to find though. But then they're easier to eat.
I'd stay away from 'Chinese algae eaters', some of these get quite agressive.
If you can find a cheap source for those big snails, they also do a great job with algae, but they'd probably get eaten pretty quickly too.

Ive used it on my fish tank. HA it killed my fish. Sure its fish safe. Yeah right. It also turns everything blue in the tank. Including all the filter stuff. And it stays that way.

i used some tank buddies algea killer and it didnt bother my turtle at all but it also didnt bother the algea.

I'm a little lost... what'd you use in your tank? And what kind of fish did you have?

these chemicals can be harmful to your turtles. Try cleaning
more often and limiting the number of hours your lighting is
on. 10 or 12 hours/day is sufficient.

Hope this helps

sorry I meant the fish lookin thingy you know the one that sucks the fish tank yup thats what im talkin about

Have you seen this yourself? I'm just very curious.. I'm kind of a fish fan. There's more than one kind, though.

with their turtle Im just curious

I have just recently put a plecko into my aquarium with my turtle. I was worried at first so i keep a close eye on them. My turtle is only about 2 inches and the plecko is a certain bred that remains about 3 inches long. The turlte only noticed the plecko when it moved, and the turlte bit it (like everything else) He lost interest pretty fast when it hid, and ever since then plecko just keeps its distance form the turtle and they are fine together. Just make sure the plecko has a hiding spot for when the turlte feels the need to bite at it. And my aquaruim has kept a little bit cleaner, the algea is more controlled. I think they are fine together becuase of their sizes, too much difference and i do not think it would work.

Thank you very much for postin.

I have used a LARGE pleco with a pair of RES's, with no problems, but the pleco was about 9 inches long. Snails are a great way to go- what I did was went to a clean pond, collected ALOT of wild snails (those little ones), kept them in their own tank for awhile (to make sure they were healthy), and then would toss around 10 to 15 into the turtles tank once a week. This has two benefits- gets rid of the algea and provides a good calcium/protein source for the turts whenever they wanted a "snack".