sae vs pleco,opinions please

siamese algae eater vs plec,im just wondering how effective they are at removing algae compared to each other,this will be for my 300L
cheers

Sae for me everytime. My plecos are waste creating machines that just eat food fed to the tank, ignore the algae and get fatter and fatter....lazy....

I added a few small bristle noses and they seem to be more algae centric but the larger plecs are just no good compared to the sae's....

Sae
I have 3 large plecs and they make an awful feckin mess of the tank
Just spent the last hour and a half trying to suck out the shit......

I never had SAEs but had gibbiceps Pleco that was a poo machine. Have bristle noses now and they are much better my Anubias is pretty much algae free.

Depends on which pleco... some don't eat algae whereas some will although can be quite picky about algae type. Sae will do the job ye want them to do!!
If ye only want it to eat algae choose your pleco wisely otherwise go with sae's... if ye like pleco's unconditionally then get 1 but more maintenance may be needed depending.

cheers for the replies so far lads,im familiar with the mess made by plec`s and i would prefer to avoid it even though they look pretty good and i have no familiarity at all with sae`s,
how may would i need for the 300l?

How do you compare cake and biscuits, two different fish, ive kept both over the years and the true SAE will do exactly what it says on the tin but for me not very challenging or as interesting as most plecos. The SAE will group well together and for a 300l tank you could keep 6,7, dont forget they also need regular feeding once the algae is gone.

A combination of SAEs, "Horned" Nerite Snails and Ottocinclus is what Ive always used...This combo will take care of most of the different types of algae...This in conjunction with 50% weekly water changes, appropriate stocking levels, an acceptable feeding regime and live plants will keep an aquarium for the most part algae free....

I have found Plecos of various different species to be good and bad algae eaters and on top of that they all crap like hell and if its a pristine substrate your after forget them.....The best Pleco for eating alage is the Bristlenose (Ancistrus) but again they crap alot.......

The best algae eater Ive come across is the Nerite snail but beware if you have bogwood they like to lay little sesame seed size eggs on it and they are hard to get rid of unless you take the wood out of the tank and manually clean it....Nerites cant reproduce either unless they are kept in brackish conditions which is a plus compared to other snails....So ya wont end up with a tankfull of unwanted snails...

gunnered1972 wrote:

A combination of SAEs, "Horned" Nerite Snails and Ottocinclus is what Ive always used...This combo will take care of most of the different types of algae...This in conjunction with 50% weekly water changes, appropriate stocking levels, an acceptable feeding regime and live plants will keep an aquarium for the most part algae free....

I have found Plecos of various different species to be good and bad algae eaters and on top of that they all crap like hell and if its a pristine substrate your after forget them.....The best Pleco for eating alage is the Bristlenose (Ancistrus) but again they crap alot.......

The best algae eater Ive come across is the Nerite snail but beware if you have bogwood they like to lay little sesame seed size eggs on it and they are hard to get rid of unless you take the wood out of the tank and manually clean it....Nerites cant reproduce either unless they are kept in brackish conditions which is a plus compared to other snails....So ya wont end up with a tankfull of unwanted snails...

very good reply. Take a look at the little ottos, maybe not the best algae eaters but sure are cute.

gunnered1972 wrote:

A combination of SAEs, "Horned" Nerite Snails and Ottocinclus is what Ive always used...This combo will take care of most of the different types of algae...This in conjunction with 50% weekly water changes, appropriate stocking levels, an acceptable feeding regime and live plants will keep an aquarium for the most part algae free....

I have found Plecos of various different species to be good and bad algae eaters and on top of that they all crap like hell and if its a pristine substrate your after forget them.....The best Pleco for eating alage is the Bristlenose (Ancistrus) but again they crap alot.......

The best algae eater Ive come across is the Nerite snail but beware if you have bogwood they like to lay little sesame seed size eggs on it and they are hard to get rid of unless you take the wood out of the tank and manually clean it....Nerites cant reproduce either unless they are kept in brackish conditions which is a plus compared to other snails....So ya wont end up with a tankfull of unwanted snails...

i have a few assasain snails in there so there is no issue with overpopulation,im not suffering from a build up of algae its just a few place that are next to impossible to get to for cleaning purposes..
I was initially going to get a gold nugget pleco but am not thinking about the sae`s instead as the pleco seems hard to get at the min.