Habitat - Indoor :: Tank Cleaners

[g29w]

Are there any algae-eaters/tank cleaners that help clean the tank more than the waste they produce?

Plecos & snails? but I want to make sure they clean more then they make a mess.

I want something to eat leftover lettuce bits and help with the turtle poop. I'm not too worried about them being eaten any time soon, my turtles haven't even eaten the rosies I bought for them.

[Pizza]

Well a turtle's mind works in mysterious ways, and they have been known to even identify new fish added to the tank from old ones they have left behind (even if they are the same species, size, and color), as well, they may leave a fish alone for months, but one day they will get bored or something and eat the veteran fish. So be prepared for your algae eaters to go missing at any given point (even a few minutes within introducing them to the tank).

Snails are inexpensive and do eat up small amounts of debris in the tank, but they have another problem, they reproduce at an alarming rate, sometimes faster than your turtles can eat them. If this happens, you may find yourself in a situation where you have to clean out everything top to bottom, tank, filter, you can get rid of them, even if a few survive, they may reproduce again. A large mass of snails can also dirty up the water faster from their own waste, and their absorption of the oxygen in the water, causing a hazard to your turtles and definitely your fish.

As for Plecos and the common Algae Eaters, they do eat up small amounts of algae on the tank and produce little waste, but they simply do not eat enough of it fast enough, so unless you want to add them for show, they are ineffective at what you intend for them to do. A lot of fish keepers make the mistake of throwing in a bunch of these hoping they can cut back on tank maintenance, but every time they try, their tactic fails as the tank just gets dirtier and they have a lot more fish to take care of.

There is no true way to save time and help with tank maintenance, other than regular tank cleanings and filter maintenance. Waste degraders may aid in brekaing down solid waste for your filter to suck up, but then you need to clean your filter regualrly either way. Common feeders such as guppies and rosies can eat up small bits lying on the tank bottom or whatever your turtle leaves behind, and to some people they find them as a lot of help, but then it just means you need to maintain the water quality more frequently to prevent a dead fish.

[g29w]

I see, thanks for the post Pizza. I was searching through the forums to look at old posts and I wasn't too sure if extra tank mates helped cleaning the tank or simply made it harder bc of extra waste production outweighed the algae/debris eating.

I think I will probably skip on the plecos/snails and maybe try some ghost shrimps w/ the rosies. I don't mind if any of them are eaten.

I guess as a side question, does any one ever have debris on one edge of the tank if the filter is on the other side? The only minor problems with cleaning my tank are a) fish/turtle poop on the far side of my tank away from the filter (i.e. right side filter, left side poop and b) uneaten veggie parts (lettuce) that are too large for the filter but turtles didn't eat.

Maybe the solution is to put the filter closer to the center of the tank?

[Pizza]

I have that situation sometimes, but the stuff is only on the other side for a few hours at most. As for uneaten food, they are generally eaten by my turtles eventually, or at least broken down and clawed enough so that they are small enough to get sucked into the filter (my turtles are all mature and large).

For me, the large pieces are eventually crushed and broken down into small enough pieces that can be taken into the filter (such as scutes), and the ones that don't just lay in the water until I have a free day so that I can take them out myself.

I use an xP4 canister filter in a 90 Gallon tank, so that may account for the ease, it's pretty powerful and can suck things in the water from one edge of the tank to where the intake is (on the other side), and when it fails to suck up even small particles very close nearby, then I know that it's time for filter maintenance, since the filter is already stuffed with nasty things. My turtles also help in this process, when they swim from one side to another, they tend to kick the particles and they start to travel in the water in the direction of the intake.

Another upside to using a canister filter is you can place the intake and output anywhere, so I choose to place them at opposite ends, so the output will release clean water into the tank from one side, and at the same time create a small current pushing the existing unfiltered water on that side to the other, where the intake is, sort of like a cycle.

If you haven't cleaned out your filter in a few weeks, then try that and see where it takes you, if even after cleaning your filter and the result has not improved, consider getting a stronger filter (I'm not sure what filter you use).