327. How to get rid of Algae in the Planted tank. Plecos in the planted tank

[2011movietrailers]

I had a pleco grow around 10 inches, at night he would come up for water so fast that you could hear the pop through the house. And yeah they are built like sharks just without teeth, if fish mess with them they don't forget it.

[PetProdigies]

i used to have a plec in my 20 gal he used to never come out of his cave until he out grew all my fish he was like 5 in long and he would come to the top of the tank and steal my fishes food then one day i got a zebra chichlid from a friend whos accidentally bred in his tank this little beby grew to like 3 in and just beat the f out of the plec and guess what after 3 days the plec was fine and some how the chichlid died. lesson learned i am never ever getting a plec or a zebra chichlid again

[ThePrimoyal]

wow!!

[FreeTheSticks]

I'm planning to get a little 1 inch bulldog pleco for my 75 gallon soon just for the heck of it.

[AznKidd117]

my yellow tang disappeared too! O.O

i didnt even find the skeletons or anything

[mrwilf1978]

My Plec don't bother any of my fish! he just sits around chillin (sometimes upside down) lol

He also tends to sit in the corner of the tank and watch TV when the Simpsons or Family Guy's on tho!! I swear he's not right in the head lol

[adadkins1993]

Wow, that is a great video! So many people want to use a Pleco or a Nerite Snail to fix their algae problems.

I have a 5" Bristlenose Pleco and he is a beast, he chows down on any of the little bit of algae I get. He is also housed with 3 Otocinclus Cats and a Clown Pleco, so needless to say I am actually TRYING to grow algae for them all.

[goober0323]

I had a pleco grow to almost 8 inches long in my 75 gal planted tank.. he was great as a little one but once he got big he started destroying my plants.. every morning i was throwing away plants cause he was pulling them out of the substrate from swimming around and pulling on them... i would recommend any kind of dwarf pleco if anything..

[stnwllstv]

A good tip for getting algae and snail spawn off your plants is to use 1tsp of Ammonium Alum per gallon of tap water.Soak your plants in it for 10 or 15 minutes and it'll kill all known types of algae and snail spawn and green the plants up really nice.This is a little known but very effective method to kill any existing algae and it works best when bringing plants home from the fish store.The problem(for men)is that the stuff is sold in the grocery store in the feminine hygiene section. ;^)

[stnwllstv]

@stnwllstv Don't forget to tell them rinse them off really good before putting them in the tank.

You're not half as smart as you think you are!

[stnwllstv]

I'm sure you know that most fish commonly referred to as plecos aren't really plecos.As for an actual plecostomus,I hate them.I've heard that corys exude a hormone that acts as a fish repellent and maybe plecos do to and that's why they tend to never get messed with but I really don't know.I just know that I hate them.

[DurpFish91]

I had 2 plecos in my 55 never bothered any fish, my cichlids never bothered them, the only fish the plecos ever picked on were eachother, my big bro has one of them and my uncle has the other, i just bought a longfin albino pleco today, for my 10 gallon shrimp/dwarf cichlid aquarium.

thx dustin i had a major algae problem in my 55 im gonna stop running my lights all the time,

[georgestinnett98]

if you get two bn pleco you well have zero algae

[CI321]

i have oscars & a pleco, my oscars eat other fish but never mess with my pleco

[SuperTouchthis]

I Have a 1.2 Meter Tarpon in my 1000 gallon pong and he ate my 18 Inch Pleco ;) Hes Fat ..... Lol

[bloodaftertaste]

i had a pleco in a 75 whit 12 red belly...he lived whit them for 2 years !!! but then vanishes ??

got a other in my new high tech tank, whit my tetra and dwarf aquatic frogs and no one f*** whit him......but the tretra and the frogs and turf wars :)

[HistorianHimself]

I had a school of convicts eat a six inch pleco. One day he was fine, the next day he was a skeleton. Started feeding the convicts more after that... then they bred more.

I no longer keep cichlids.

[powderhogg01]

I have had plecos for years. and they are the quiet type. I think the reason other fish dont mess with them is the amount of poo always coming out of them. they are waste monsters.

[thedragonwatcher100]

lool i got 2 plecos and they boss the pirranah tank there fearless as well :DD

[adrenalinejunkie444]

Now is algea necessarily bad? I have a small 5.5 gal tank with a betta 2 guppies and an albino Cory and everyday I find more algea so I brush it off with a tooth brush I use to help me clean my tank, will doing a 50% water change get rid of it? It's not like there's a ton. And btw should I get rid of it?

[Piano1515]

i just got a new 2" pleco and added it to my 10 gallon with 2 goldfish and 2 guppys. as soon as i let it out of the bag it swam straight to my big goldfish about 5" big and just sucked abunch of the scales off of it..it let go like 3 hours later but my goldfish is scared and scard i think haha

[strigoe]

I've got a few plecos, but the big one is the one everyone stay away from when he's out and about. Even my huge clown knife fish swims away from his food when the pleco comes. The pleco just fans his fins as much as possible and ram into the fish that's in his way.

[barrowscasper12]

my plecos eat my plants and not the algae =/ (its not that theyre scrubbing the algae off the plants, cause all the plants they ate so far weren't "infected" with algae =/)

[buusama]

I have two bristle noses and they only mess around with each other, they don't bother the other fish. They seem to be on good terms with the neon tetras and even with the corys. :)

[FreddieMcswaggness]

dude i had a pleco bout 20''in had for about 6 years.... but noe i got a fish that may not seem mean but is like one of them big bad dudes you wouldent wana mess with. the leporinus fasciatus check them out bro they get about a foot long an i shit you not 1 on one i had a 8in'' ten striped leporinus that fucker would keep my red belly in the corner of my 55 they would eat up any type of plants doe but yup wouldent let the Piranha eat nothing ... my dad ended up flushing it alive

[beegirl84]

My pleco kept randomly chasing my betta. My betta was so upset by it that he would pace the front of the tank 24/7. I removed the pleco and my betta is now going everywhere in the tank again.

[SwhompMonsta]

Plecos got armored scales no fish can fuck with that!

[PLeCo9668]

I have a hifin pleco and he is a bitch! he will kill any other pleco that gets near him and he is just lazy. he doesnt clean. he just sits there, however hes my boy!

[jayedsun]

my blue malawi cichlid ate 2 pleco's, when you flipped over the pleco's body the insides of it was completely cleaned out

[JohnnyX50]

I had 2 plecos that would fight for the glass, one would start eating the other would knock it out the way and chase it. they also started going for my fish and actually made holes in ones tail fin which made me annoyed. I think they preferred the fishes slime coating to the algae so when the plecos died i never replaced them, now i have to get rid of the algae that just keeps coming back!!

[scalenekilla]

My Pleco is a gentle giant unless he's on his period. Which is every once and a while and he rams everything

[PetaPanPipes]

RIP purple tang..

[FishTanks704]

My Pleco Go Around Bullying My Goldfish All The Time

[JohnnyX50]

@FishTanks704 that happened to me too. i wont put plecos in again with my fancy goldfish.

[ObviouslySancho]

I had a common Pleco in a 50 gallon and it grew a foot long. Had it for 2-3 years

[MrPrototype16]

Anyone use Flourish excel in their tanks? Its a liquid carbon supp for plants after i started using it, the algae on some of the leaves went from green to red and died off. Looked it up and Seachem doesn't advert it as an algae killer but it works in my tanks.

[TheShadowfexx]

MY FISH ATE TWO HONG KONG PLECOS WITHIN TWO WEEKS!!!!

[pigglepiggies]

maybe its because they have that spine on their top fin like all catfish??

[vinniedurrant]

type in plec vs piranha

[EatMySchwartz61]

Subscribed.

[Gracie7965]

I had some algae growing on my plants so i bought a pleco..within a few days the tank was spotless!

[ohmyfeilunhai]

I had a pleco that killed every fish in the tank =__=;; serial killer pleco.

[BrandonK1023]

Hey I know this is late. But yeah plecos are definitely the quiet, but deadly type. My pleco whooped my oscar's butt. My oscar kept on and on and on. Then I cut off the lights..went to bed, got up the next morning and my oscar had bite marks all over him...yep. He is a badass. Leviathan (the pleco) definitely lives up to his name. Now that Kraken (my oscar) is bigger he is too. Anyway great channel man! Love this stuff!

[psnaddict]

my pleco is gettin quite large now, maybe 6 inches and is a right pain in the arse sometimes - he has these franctic mad dashes from end to end which often uproots my plants... Only trouble is that i could never catch him with the amount of plants in the tank. (55 gal tank) But he messes with no1 and nothin messes with him :) He is just the king

[GreatWallGA]

PS *PLECO will finish plants before they eat algea, snail is better but you will get over run if you don't control the populations, Hill Stream algea eater and flying fox will do a better JOB!

[GreatWallGA]

Hey Dustins, can you tell me How to Remove the black Aglea from my 125 Gallon Planted Tank. I have 4 T5 Light Bulbs, 1 gloden chinese algea eater, Snow Ball pleco, Bushy Pleco, Royal Pleco ,Pleco that has a yellow dots on it, and a catfish! My tank has no problems with the green algea, but the black Aglea cover the plants and rock and decors in weeks. (All my plants died, only the hugh moss ball remain) I used to run my lights about 10 hours a day, but I just switch to 6 hours a day.

[PierceCCassedy]

I think you are right about the pleco. the only fish I have seen mess with one is my haw river catfish the fights seem to be a tossup. Catfish usually starts them though.

[floore2]

my synodontis beats up my pleco every time they try and eat the same piece of food.

[Tristansfishcrazy]

My peppermint was really cool, never really messed with anybody but when we added a red tailed shark the shark kicked the plecos ass took out it's eyes and messed it up! It was dead on the floor of the tank the next day =(

[ddevine123]

my pleco was king for a while, he was chillin... then i added my angle and he beat shite up and took one of the plecos eyes :(

[elpaisajose]

i agree with you on the pleco thing

[korembluma]

my pleco got fuked up by my rainbow shark haha.

[TheDutch231]

Only thing that will survive in my piranha tank...pleco.

[EmoRylee366]

how do you get algae off your plants themselves? my plants are covered in algae.

[Dustinsfishtanks]

@EmoRylee366 you gotta get the tank more balanced/ remove the covered leaves, cut back the lighting do a water change how long your lights on?

[EmoRylee366]

@Dustinsfishtanks 8 to 9 hours a day.

[Jezis52]

@EmoRylee366 get an otocinclus my plants were  covered wit algae n he did a great job now the plants look green n wit no algae on them.

[MannyFresh1x]

i have a 13 inch pleco in my 75 gal he dosnt bother anybody in the tank but when he moves all the fish move out his way.

[ox387]

ok i didnt see this vid so im guessin i leave the lights on for too long . hopefully i can get this cleared up cause one of my loaches has ich so i put him in a seperate tank and hopefully once i change out this water and vacume the bottom it will be clean and my other fish will be ok. great vids man you def know your shit just subbed.

[clempunk86]

lol ok i keep a clown pleco with my tiger barbs...and he NEVER comes out...hides under a little piece of driftwood and chills...but...any time a barb gets close to his home...he beats the shit out of him lol...gravel comes flying out from under the driftwood and it cracks me up...not good for algae though...bristlenose does a pretty good job cleaning algae

[Everythingaquarium]

I have this bristle nose pleco and this red shark if the red tailed shark touches his algae wafer he gets attacked. the shark is so scared of him he never comes out.

[flowrusha]

i have a little 6 inch pleco in my 125 gallon and he can be a jerk he killed one of my australian rainbows! scrued up his gills and it just stopped eating... he also doesnt care for anything hahaha total introvert...

[Dustinsfishtanks]

@flowrusha Plecos are beasts, that sucks though

[JouninSpriggan]

My pleco was really chill when I had him in my 10 gallon. He did ok for a few months with a no real hiding place and without real food. I felt really really bad for him so I did finally give him up to my LFS. I kept him for maybe 7 months and he grew to about 5 inches.

So its obvious that light is my algae problem right now and reducing said light is obviously the solution, but what do I do with the existing algae? Bother manually remove it or let it die out?

[Dustinsfishtanks]

@JouninSpriggan you always want to manually remove as much as you can. If you have reduced your lights you should be ok. Make sure your bulbs aren't too old either. that always causes algae

[Dustinsfishtanks]

Pleco people...this is awesome, tell me more...

[JonItalia]

Plecos don't get fucked with because of their armor and they hit hard with their tails when they want to. Don't fuck with a sleeping giant.

[Dustinsfishtanks]

@JonItalia this has been one of my favorite videos and replies...people are love pleco stories!

[aznsushi41]

ive try to keep plecos, they die in my tank

[svtcontour]

I used to have a full grown Jack Dempsey in my 120 gallon long ago and I used to have a 14" long common pleco. The JD would threaten the thing all the time but th pleco wouldnt even budge. One day the pleco just had enough and attacked back. It went mental. After that day, the JD was always scared of the Pleco whenever it moved even if it was across the tank. Plecos can definitely hold their own against most fish.

[schtals]

haahahah!!! that was funny

[fishydub]

yeah man i have a long finned bristlenose pleco and it bitch slaps all the fishes, except for my hoplo catfish, which is large, with its huge tail fin if they get close to its food xD

[vett3l0l]

my plecos are agressive as fuck.

[vett3l0l]

@vett3l0l they try to eat my corydoras

[caiocrz]

LOL! I guess this theory is correct. I didnt see any action from a pleco i had until my jew started annoying it. it went mad

[lillilmike]

I fucking hate those things dusty man u are saf with those tanks bro.

[spudsssy]

Great Vid Dustin.... Im always trying to tell people they shouldnt solve algae problems with fish.! B-B-B-B-Balance! =D

I kept a pleco with a dwarf snakehead once, ignored it. When i hand feed my 16" pleco he headbuts all the other fish out of the way n munches on the food.

Pleco's, especially large pleco's are deffo the stong silent type no fish mess with. There are also much better fish out there for eating algae... Pleco's are shiting machines and dont exactly clean the tank lol

[the4blueturtles]

@spudsssy was that ur sailfin? my bristlenose eats algea all day, i've never had an algea problem in my 68, but that maybe becuase i have good balence but still...

[9BigGeorge]

Hey Dustin, i have a couple pleco's. one of them is 15 inches in my 55 gallon, and the other is just 3 inches. Both of them chill out and never get fucked with. I think they don't get fucked with is because there body armor. Look at there skin, They're covered in very hard scales and laced with spikes. I seen my Friends Oscar Biting and nipping at his 17 inch Pleco, and the Pleco did a very fast swoop past the Oscar with his spikes up (repeatedly) and killed the Oscar eventually.

[partyonman1959]

Algie is caused by excess nutriants, more than what your plants consume. Do a water change and back off the dosing if your adding plant nutriants. You can add Flourish Excell to kick your plants into a hyper absorb but it can be dangerious for the fish so be careful. Also cut back on your feeding of the fish. Overfeeding can also leed to algie. Also be aware of phosphates in your tank.

[richardsauceda75]

i have a pleco w3ith my turtle, so your right. They be badass

[AquaJtang]

"Plecos are like the quiet guy you never wanna fuck with!"

I LOL'd

i hear plecos will sometimes eat the slimecoat off fish, heard this happens a lot to goldfishes

[tommynasty]

pleco is the Tony Seprano of wish world, never shows his feelings to the other fish.



[2months2cycle]

I really want to see how that turns out? Do you test the aquarium daily for ammonia and nitrite or are you just gonna wait for a week and see what happens?

I think your plant load might just deal with it. I have a 55 and didn't add any liquid plant nutrition and my nitrates were at 0ppm after a week. With plant fertz it's usually between 5-10ppm

[pot1984]

i had a pleco with 2 Oscars, at first the Oscars was full angry bitches and wanna to attack the pleco tat i had but they soon find out they r no match and after a week or so they just stayed away ..

[ThaDrSean]

Plecos are awesome. They are the one fish that can go in any aquarium. They can be with neons and they can be with fish from river monsters (Couple exceptions). But they do eat plants.

[Supertasticaquatics]

Just a word of advice, in nature (which is what we try to replicate in nature), there is algae. It is in nature as part of an ecosystem. Although most succesful tanks have a good balance, more extreme tanks usually require you to have some kind of clean up crew, and that is ok, because it is only natural to have a few fish to break down detritus and algae. In river basins, shrimp, worms, crabs, etc eat larger fish poop. Than it keeps getting broken down until it reaches gasseous forms.

[samuelwaynefoleyjr]

hey man i'm not trying to tell you to tear down your saltwater because we know you love the clown (i love my maroon too) but what about that extra 29 gallon behind your shed why not put a medal halide on that and convert it with the maroon and get an anemone later on for it. because you know if it gets an anemone it won't come out. Plus with all the extra saltwater stuff you shoudl have enough $ to set this one up as another freshplanted

[mrzonkedman]

let the LA fish guy do salt water, just stick with fresh

[sclb45]

right on the dot with the pleco personality

[Churchhealzimpact]

Dustin, good video man, i did a algae control/cleanup crew video that supplements this perfectly...check it out on the website or on my channel.

[fishguy113]

my pleco when i had it with african cichlids back in the day use to beat all their asses it would guard its cucumber i gave it and if a fish went near it he would chase em away

[10kpondguy]

you want to be careful with plecos and planted tanks, they love to eat plants.

and to your theory.....i have 4 large(12-17in) plecos......they have dominated every fish in the tank. including my 2ft aro that just died. damn near killed him once, two of em hung on the side of the aro and shoved him into the bottom of the tank, i had to physically seperate them. plecos are aggressive toward other plecos as well. i agree, they are the rambo's of the fish world. lol.

[TheAquariumKid]

just tear down that salt tank dustin. we know u dont like it lol...

[Snuper325]

I have a otocinclus and he does a good job to keep it down but I do more water changes overall to take off the majority of the algae.

[iKeepCichlids]

Plecos r bad asses there 1 in my lfs who fought with a full grown royal green terror

[nicofish1000]

thanks you dustin thankyou. I can tell you how many times I have told people to not buy a pleco for their algea problems on aquascape.ning.com.

PLECOS WILL MAKE YOUR PROBLEM WORSE THEY PRODUCE ALOT OF WAIST