Basic cleanup crew

[WateryWorld]

For my community 125g tank, what would I need for a good clean up crew (together with good filters) so that my cleaning maintenance is reduced? I will be getting more cory cats, but the new ones and the current ones are younger and only 1". I think I will have six, possibly willing to get a second group of six cory cats. The tank also currently has a 11-12" pleco but I am thinking of not keeping him. I have fake plants. Very natural gravel varying shapes and sizes from .1 inch to .6 inches that I really like having.

 

[DarkCrow]

Ghost shrimp or Amano shrimp.

 

[WateryWorld]

I would like to have ghost shrimp, but think that my tinfoil barb will eat them. (Maybe the pleco.) I wouldn't even mind if they ate some, if the shrimp were procreating enough to keep their numbers up, but I read that it's a little tricky to get the shrimp to breed.

 

[THE V]

A couple of the larger snail species would do well in there.

If you don't have any live plants in your tank, reduce the light amount and photoperiod to help keep algae under control. In my 125 tank the lights are on from 4-10 pm and I have 160 watts. This keeps the algae growth to a minimum.

 

[WateryWorld]

Ok, I would love to add some snails. And I am interested in reducing the wattage to the minimum that the fish need. (Esp since I do like to have the lights on a lot of hours.)

 

[OldMan47]

You will need to keep the ultimate size of the tinfoil barb in mind no matter what you put in the tank. A tinfoil can get big enough to have trouble turning around in a 55. I know your tank is bigger than that but his tank mates need you to consider that ultimate size.
As far as helping you keep your tank and reducing maintenance, the are no fish that will do that. What happens is you put an algae eater in the tank and it produces lots of waste so instead of cleaning algae, you end up gravel vacuuming the subtrate. If you like the looks of plecos, a bristle nose won't get huge but will get big enough to be safe with your barb. They tend to continue eating algae better than a common plec. Many of the best algae eaters such as otocinclus cannot survive with a large barb once it gets big. The best way to not need to clean up food waste is to avoid overfeeding. I love my cories and have lots of them but they only eat while they are still hungry, they won't offset overfeeding.

 

[WateryWorld]

I plan to rehome the tinfoil and pleco by the time they grow another 2 inches. I think I like having one or two fish that are medium sized like the tinfoil, so I'll have to find some adult other fish to take its place. Then again, if I skip the medium sized fish, I would be able to get a bunch of the little tetras, guppies, etc. I think the little fish may just go in the new tank I get, since the 125 looks good with a few medium sized.

 

[jpappy789]

Cleaning maintenance will not be reduced based on a clean up crew. In reality there is no such thing in freshwater, only a gravel vac. Nothing eats poop and while shrimp and snails may eat algae, it's generally best to fix the source of the problem in my opinion. Just like oldman said, once you increase the bioload of the tank you will end up with more waste. And inverts may not survive with the "medium size" fish...

 

[THE V]

Ok, I would love to add some snails. And I am interested in reducing the wattage to the minimum that the fish need. (Esp since I do like to have the lights on a lot of hours.)

The fish would do fine with one 40 watt bulb above them. That's what I used to have over mine. I just like the way they look with brighter light so I had to cut down on the hours. Six hours with 160 watts of light is pretty close to the same amount of energy as 40 watts for 24 hours. I used to run the 40 watt bulb for 12 hours a day so I've pretty much doubled the amount of light energy in the tank... and quadrupled the amount of algae..... So I got the snails and have increased the amount of water changes.