What is this stuff?

[Mindy]

So lately I've noticed on my plants this weird blackish (some dark brown/reddish) fuzzy stuff on the leaves. It looks like the leaves have hair! It doesn't come off easily and I noticed even more of it on my plants after I did a gravel clean and filter cartridge change yesterday. Is it some sort of algae? fungus? is it possible to get rid of it? please help!

 

[Balloon Fish]

i think what your talking about is black beard algae and it is sorta hard to remove. Not sure but i think bleach will take it off of ornament (not sure about plants) but you'll have to ask someone else on that kind of stuff. Black beard algae is usualy a cause of changing co2 levels so if you do add co2 then raise the ppm a little and keep it at a constant level.

 

[Balloon Fish]

forgot to give this to you but heres a good link with pictures on it and you can probably find out excactly what it is http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9

 

[discus4everGrl]

algea usually grows on plant leaves which aren't growing at a fast enough rate to overpower the algea. You should prune any leaves that have excess algea growth.

 

[revfred]

BBA.... Black Brush Algae is a real PITA. Prune the worst leaves from the plant. Depending on the plant soak the leaves ... not the roots... in hydrogen peroxide ... just like you get from the drug store. Soak the ornaments and everything else too. About 5-10 minutes should do it... replace in your tank... there will be some small bubbles ... not a prob ... just H2O2 being converted to H2O...within a day the color will fade and the AE's, gups, etc should begin eating it. You may need a couple of treatments.

If you choose ... after the initial hydrogen peroxide dip ... begin using Seachem's Excel every day in at least 2x's the recommended dose if not more. Check out an article in PlantGeeks for some suggested dosages. It will also benefit the plants and eventually get rid of the BBA. It's really tough to get rid of once it takes over so be aggressive.

 

[Balloon Fish]

don't you have to put some water in the hydrogen peroxide mix?

 

[discus4everGrl]

You can also pull the plants and give them a 1/20 part bleach dip and rinse well. This is also a useful teachnique when buying new plants to ensure you don't get any of those unwanted snail eggs in your tank.

 

[Mindy]

Ok I'll try those techniques. Thank you very much everybody for all of your help!!