Idea's needed :)

[soccermouth]

I have a buddy that lives in an apartment in Chicago. He got a 125 gallon fish tank given to him. He's an aquarium novice. I attempted to help him get it set up by slowly stock it etc... it worked for the most part. There were only a few fish losses. They were cleaning the tank once and tried to refill it too fast (they just dumped a garbage can full of water into the tank). It cracked the tank about a quarter of the way down so they emptied out that much water and decided they would add a turtle. The turtle killed a few fish. I don't know what kind of turtle it is but it's left the rest of the fish alone as they are quite large and he can't keep up. they have a small island for the turtle and a few items in the tank but all the fake plants have been dragged under the island by they turtle and bigger gold fish. The tank is covered in algae as well. Here are the problems I'm trying to get them to overcome even though they aren't as concerned about the fish as I am, they're just concerned about the look of the tank.

1) they want to get rid of the algae. The problem is that they want a fish that will do it. I told them it's not bad because it helps get rid of the NO3 but it looks bad so they want it out. But... the turtle will eat fish unless they are big enough. What would be a good algae eater? i know, most of them get large but it needs to be able to defend itself/run away until it gets large, and it needs to not eat too much algae so that it ends up out of food. Help!!! PLEASE!!! I thought about giving them my 4.5 inch Chinese Algae eater but it's a 3 hour drive from here to there. I'm not sure it would work to put him through the stress of moving and then have to run from the turtle. .

2) any way to keep the plants in place? they tried rocks but they just got knocked off and the plants got dragged away.

3) what about drift wood for decoration/an island for the turtle. would that work? I should be able to find a piece where i live. Do you think i could find a piece that provides enough island for the turtle?

[fish_doc]

Plecos grow large and eat algae. Unfortunally you cannot expect any one fish to keep a tank clean of algae.

As far as the plants go. Trying to keep them down may be impossable depending on what fish they have in the tank. Some fish are diggers and will not let anything sit where you want.

The driftwood would work for some turtles but some turtles need to get totally out of the water. So once again it depends on what kind of turtle it is they have.

[osteoporoosi]

Turtles and fish are not a good combination, the turtle might eat some fish. Also turtle fecies is toxic for fish.

[Fishfirst]

I agree on this one... it sounds like they just need to start doing some water changes and do some cleaning with some elbow grease, adding more fish now would probably just contribute to the problem

[soccermouth]

Well, they aren't going to add many fish. Probably just one to eat algae. I had a 75 gallon with a pleco and he ate all the algae in that (and there was alot to start).

I'm not sure what kind of turtle it is. It swims alot though and doesn't sit out much. The fish that are in the tank are big enough that he won't really mess with them.

[Fishfirst]

like I said... algae eater = contributer to the problem not the solution

[soccermouth]

How so? They eat algae. that's what is needed. I'm not going to be able to get them to change the water more frequently so...

[Shaggy]

Why don't they just buy another tank for just the turtle, nad have the 125 as just teh fish tank? Seems the many problem is the turtle.

[Fishfirst]

well see algae eaters like plecos produce A LOT of fish waste, fish waste is a natural nutrient for algae. Thus the more bioload you add (pleco) the more algae you get. Yes they eat it, but it also produces more nutrients to grow it. Plus some algae eaters don't eat the nussaince algae your friends maybe experiancing. This poses another problem. Also, fish REALLY shouldn't be kept with turtles... turtles are natural preditors, and WILL eat all the fish eventually... and since your pleco is slow moving or not moving, its an easy target for the turtle. See plecos don't move unless you disturb them, and turtles are ambush preditors, basically the turtle will slowly swim up to the pleco, stop, draw his head back, and then snap at the fish clutching it with its sharpe beak of a mouth. If he isn't successful, the pleco will most likely be injured.

[fish_doc]

Try suggesting to them that they buy somthing called a Python. It is a hose that is used to make water changes a snap. I can clean all sixteen of my tanks in about a hour.