I am a newbie with a 10-gallon tank we've had for 4 weeks. We have 2
Corys, 2 Platys, and now 4 baby Platys that have grown enough that it
looks like they won't be eaten. (We didn't plan on them. These have
survived and are now in the 1/4 - 3/8" range.)

We made the mistake of trying a couple of live plants, upping the
lighting to 12 hours a day with a Triton tube. The pregnant Platy was
voracious and decimated the plants. (We now have plastic.) The overfed
Platys generated a lot of fish poop and loose, decaying plant material.
I vacuumed, but should have done it earlier.

Now, we are growing algae on the aquarium walls and on the plaster
castle that the kids picked out at the fish store.

I've cut the lighting back to 8 hours. What else should I do? Hot
water rinse for the castle? Wipe the sides of the aquarium with a
sponge?

What should I do to control the algae?
- Periodic (weely?) manual cleaning?
- I've heard that snails eat algae, but are a no-no because they
multiply. (I've removed 5 that came with the plants--found over the
course of 2 weeks.)
- I've seen mention of Plecos as algae-eaters. How big will they get?
(We are trying to stay in the 1-2" size at most.) Will it get lonely
with only one? (We had hoped to add a couple other fish of our
choosing, not Plecos.) Is it only a bottom feeder, or will it take care
of the aquarium walls and castle? Will I still need to do manual
cleaning?
- Other algae-eaters?
- Other possibilities?

Thanks for any and all help.

Dave