Algae eaters

Brian, unfortunately algae is a plant. The only thing you can really do is get yourself a magnetic algae scraper and keep the front glass clean. Leave the lights off most of the time and feed less.

Or get rid of your live plants, which doesn't sound like an option...

Sorry dude...

Bristlenose plecosare suggest for planted tanks as they tend to leave plants alone and eat algae very efficiently.

I would suggest a shoal (6 or more) Otocinclus, also known as Dwarf Sucker Catfish. They can keep a tank pretty clean of algae, and won't hurt your plants. I keep 3 in my 55 (i would get more but the tank is already overstocked) and they do a bang-up job. They are housed with firemouths and are left alone. I would just give them plenty of places to take refuge just in case your FM's take an unwanted interest in them.

great! thanks for the info.

I would second otto's they are fairly quick to get away from SA's. I currently keep Siamese algae eaters in my 30g w/ 1FM and 2JD the fm and jd are fairly small though and i havent even a tail nip on the sae's

I'd just go with a bristlenose or two - they're tough, firemouths will generally ignore them, and they do a better job of algae control then otto's - they're also a lot less sensitive to poor water conditions if problems arise.

I would say it depends on your plant species ... I've had bristlenose that demolished various stem plants but leaves anubias, swords, crypts and ferns. If I had a lot delicate stem plants, I'd go the otos ...

*** got anubias, swords, a cypt, and eventually some vallisneria. i think ill go for the bn pleco.