Curing driftwood

Is it possible that the plecos are responsible for the algae free drift wood? My wood also attracts BBA, even though my drop checker stays yellow all day, I have very good water circulation, no big plant mass obstructions, and the light intensity is pretty low now. But, I have never had plecos. If Plecos are an answer I will certainly look into getting a couple.

 

The only place I've ever really had BBA is on the plastic parts of my filter system sitting in my tank. If I cleaned these parts more often than every 6 months, I probably wouldn't even get that.

I have only "mopani" type driftwood in my tanks. That stuff can sit out in the full light for months and has never had an inkling of algae. I have no plecos, so if I had to guess: My nerite snails spend quite a bit of time on my driftwood -- they may be doing the job for me. This is in both CO2 (high light) and non-CO2 (low light) tanks. I personally only need about 1 nerite per 10G or so, which is fairly light stocking. They will also keep your glass sparkling clear. I have a 10G non-CO2 that gets direct sun at times during the day. My glass was turning nice and green at one point, pretty much everywhere ... put a few nerites in there, and it was gone in a few days and stayed gone.

I also have Otos, which I believe get many algaes before you even see them -- they seem to get the algaes at the invisible "scum" stage. I haven't seen the Otos spend much time on the driftwood, however. I'm not sure, but these things (mine, at least) may be nocturnal -- they are staying healthy, but I almost never see them doing anything but hanging there.

 

Tom,

I've always wanted to get one pleco for each of my tanks. Problem is, I have this vision of some 12" monster in my little tanks. What's a good (not-so-expensive, say under $20) species for smaller (20G to 29G) tanks? If there were a little 2" dwarf pleco, all of my tanks would have one already.