10 Best Fish Tank Cleaners!

it's one of the most commonly asked questions in fish keeping what can i use to help keep my aquarium cleaner it's inevitable that aquariums are gonna get dirty no matter how diligent you are in your maintenance uneaten food fish waste and algae will accumulate throughout your tank and can make things look a little unsightly between routine maintenance so to help you keep your aquarium looking a little cleaner between maintenance here is our top 10 list of fish tank cleaners hill stream loaches are a super unique fish that might not be the most exciting fish to watch but they're going to do an amazing job keeping things like your glass and other flat surfaces free of algae these fish practically never take a break they're constantly working and scavenging for food they'll be all over the place sucking and scraping algae one of the challenges with algae eaters is finding fish that will put in the work while also not getting too big well you don't have to worry about that with these guys because they won't get any bigger than three inches or so so they're great for smaller tanks but i wouldn't put them in anything smaller than a 30 gallon hillstream loaches can accept a wide range of water parameters keep the ph anywhere from seven to eight and temperatures 68 to 78 and they'll be perfectly happy another great thing about these fish is that they don't only eat algae they'll also go around and pick up uneaten food and even frozen foods and live foods they don't get huge they tolerate most water parameters and they eat algae what more can you ask for i've said it before in other 10 things videos that otto's are practically everybody's dream fish it would have been nice if john had at least spelled the name of the fish right oh no anyway this is a great little fish that's a constant worker they'll move around everywhere eating algae and whatever they can find a munch on otto's are an algae eating fish that will clean the algae from your tank much faster than you think there are schooling fish so even if you have a ton of algae the group will get together and gobble it all up super fast this is what we want and it's great but you should also consider what you're gonna do if they eat it all and there's nothing left for them to eat this is where good quality algae wafer comes in we recommend the cat scrapers from extreme these are great because they have everything your algae eater needs when there's no more algae in the tank autos are an amazing little fish that won't bother any other fish in your tank they like a ph anywhere from six to eight and temperatures 70 to 80. keep them in clean water and well fed and there'll be little workhorses for you [Music] when most new fish keepers think about cleaner fish they almost automatically think about plecos and in most cases it'll be the common placostomus that comes to mind this is a very cool and unique fish but they won't be the cleaner fish of choice in most aquariums this is a fish that can get over two feet in length so most home aquariums won't be a good fit for them this is why when we talk about plecos in this video we'll be talking about the smaller varieties mainly the bristlenose pleco bristlenose plecos are an amazing pleco that is another constant scavenger they don't get huge and they won't bother any other fish in your tank they're one of the easiest fish to keep because they'll be good in almost any water parameters which makes them great little helpers for beginner fish keepers keep the ph anywhere from six to eight and a temperature of 68 to 80 and they'll be perfectly fine and put in some good work for you this is another fish that'll need to be fed don't rely on them just eating the algae that they happen to find in the tank if they do their job there's not really going to be much of that anyway throw in some algae wafers regularly and if you want to see something really cool throw in a slice of zucchini or cucumber they'll go crazy over it and it's a lot of fun to watch [Music] snails might not be the most active little things in your tank but they'll serve as great little workers and they're pretty cool to look at and they'll give your tank a little bit of character snails are basically bottomless pits that will constantly be on the prowl picking up anything and everything that gets in their way well teeny tiny stuff like algae fish food waste you know what i mean they just won't do it fast they'll do it at a snail's pace they'll eat pretty much anything they can consume and they'll never stop they might not be the best glass cleaners but they'll definitely help keep things tidy there's really cool varieties of snails some big and some tiny some fancy and some that would be considered a nuisance but the point is these are great aquarium cleaners they won't cause a huge load on a tank and of course they won't bother your fish as i said there's a wide variety of snails so when you find a really cool one you should do a google search just to make sure that they'll be compatible with your water parameters this will be where john puts gary going meow yeah [Music] no maybe [Music] siamese algae eaters are one of the best algae eating fish in the entire hobby and it's not even really debatable but some people will tell you they can have an aggressive attitude in all honesty we've never seen this to be true we've always found them to leave other fish alone and just do their thing i think it's one of those things that a couple of people said it online and then it just became a real thing i'm telling you there's a lot of people out there that say this in fact look in the comments of this video i would almost bet that there's already a comment or two saying that these are mean aggressive little fish welcome to the internet the truth is these are algae eating powerhouses that will clean a tank spotless in no time at all especially if you put a few in the tank together these are going to get a little bigger than others on this list they can get up to four or five inches so i would definitely recommend that you put them in at least a 55 gallon aquarium especially if you're going to put a group of them in there siamese algae eaters can tolerate a wide range of parameters but they do like the water a little warmer keep the ph between 6.5 and 7.5 and the temperature above 75 and let these little workhorses do their thing here's the thing this is why i think they have the reputation of being aggressive these fish are omnivores which means they will eat meat or anything else that they can see laying around i think what ends up happening is you'll have a fish die and the siamese algae eaters will be attracted to that and they'll start picking at it you'll come in the room and find your algae eaters eating on a dead carcass and you'll automatically assume they are the ones that killed your fish i don't know it's just a theory [Applause] [Music] shrimp are tiny and you'd be surprised at the amount of work they can do they're another fish that's constantly moving around and working and they never stop shrimp will go up down and all around your tank picking at all the little teeny tiny things and they'll do a great job eating algae one of the coolest things about shrimp is some of them like cherry shrimp are super easy to breed and they breed a lot you can buy a group of six to eight of them and they'll just get to work cleaning up your tank and making more shrimp before you know it you'll have a huge army of shrimp and your tank will be immaculate how perfect is that now you've got to be careful though because if you have fish in the tank with your shrimp they'll most likely eat the babies so if you want to create that army of shrimp you've got to make sure there's nothing in there with them that'll feast on those babies there's a ton of different shrimp so if you find one that you really want do some research on it just to make sure that it'll be okay in your tank there's a word i like to use when i describe corydoras and it's not a word that i use really to describe many other fish when you describe fish you're probably using words like cool neat unique or awesome for cory's i use the word cute or even adorable they're cute i mean what what do you want me to tell you they're cute but they're not just cute they're also great little workers they're easy to keep most of them stay pretty small and i've never heard a single story about them being aggressive towards other fish these aren't algae eaters that are going to suck the algae off the glass but they're bottom dwelling scavengers that'll sift through the substrate with their little barbels and pick up things left all around the bottom of your tank one word of caution though those little barbels that hang down underneath their mouth they can get a little damaged from rougher substrates so when you go to pick out a substrate for your corydora tank make sure you use something that's nice and smooth and not going to damage those little dangly things this is a super easy to keep fish because they'll tolerate most parameters a ph from 6 to 8 and a temperature anywhere from 72 to 80 but we've actually kept them with discus at 84 degrees and they were fine keep their water clean and feed them a good quality tropical flake and other than that they'll go around the tank and find other little things to munch on and they're cute coulee loaches are one of the most unique fish on this list they literally look like little worms or snakes just swimming around in your tanks this is another fish that's not an algae eater they spend their time getting into the little nooks and crannies throughout your tank looking for little things to eat the only problem with them is if you only put one in the tank they are super shy fish so you might not see them very often one of the ways you can change that is to get a small group of them if you get three to four they might feel a little less skittish and will explore all the time this is a super easy fish to keep that won't hurt any other fish in your tank and they'll get into those tight spots you might not be able to reach water perimeters are easy give them a ph of six to seven keep the temperatures 75 to 85 and feed them a good tropical flake and they'll do just fine [Music] clown loaches are another really cool bottom dwelling scavenger that has a shape kind of similar to corydoras but there's a big difference between clown loaches and quarries and i mean big these fish get a lot bigger than most people think this is because most of them you see for sale in stores are only going to be an inch to an inch and a half but what you need to know is these fish can get over 12 inches when full grown i've never had any get that big but i've seen them and it's pretty shocking clown lodges will be all over the place in your tank scavenging everywhere for food they'll sift the substrate sneak behind little decorations and generally do a great job picking up messes if only teenagers work like that these aren't as easy to keep as others on this list and they're without a doubt the biggest fish on the list so you'll not only need to know what you're doing if you're gonna get some but you'll also need to have the right setup and there's a big reason why clown loaches are a schooling fish so not only are they going to get really big but you're also going to want a few of them to keep them happy bottom line is do your research before you go buy a school of clown loaches if you have the right setup to keep them they'll do a great job helping you keep your tank clean between maintenance okay don't kill the messenger i'm just stating facts so many times fish keepers are looking for fish that will make their lives easier and lessen the amount of work they need to do there's only one way i can say this there's not an aquarium on this earth that you do not have to do any maintenance on yes the fish on this list will do a great job helping to keep your aquarium nice and neat and free of algae but that doesn't change the fact that work still needs to be done regularly to keep a healthy environment yes these fish eat stuff laying around but what happens then the mess doesn't just disappear it comes out later as waste fish waste contaminates the water in your aquarium and there's no fish that's going to change that yes there are things like live plants and extra biomedia that will help keep the water under control but the bottom line is you're going to have to get in there periodically and just do the maintenance it's part of the deal don't worry about it the work is what makes it fun it's a great feeling taking a step back from your aquarium that you just cleaned and seen how good it looks and how happy the fish are it's one of the rewards of this amazing hobby [Music] you

Channel: KGTropicals

Views: 3,488,962

Keywords: KGTropicals, how to clean an aquarium, clean fish tank, algae eating fish, algae eaters, plecostomus, bristle nose pleco, fancy pleco, aquarium snails, fish tank cleaners, fish tank cleaning, aquarium cleaners, maintain a fish tank, fish tank maintenance, fish keeping in arabic, fish keeping in Japanese, fish keeping in Spanish, fish keeping in French, fish keeping in Hindi, fish keeping in Portuguese

Id: dCzUZR-ThLM

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 05 2020