hairy black algae

sae's will eat some of it, yes.


heres a really good site about sae's and their differences from false ones...
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/cyprinid.html


here's an algae site...
http://aquabotanicwetthumb.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=4006090712&f=8796060812&m=3256098022

Does your black algae look like in the attached photo? If so, then SAEs will help you. I had it and it slowly progressed and covered lots of plants and driftwood. I removed it by hand but couldn't keep up. Then I bought three SAEs (young) and after some time the bigger one started to eat the black strands. The other two joined later. I did continue to remove the algae manually and together we brought it down to extintion. Or so I thought.

Then I had some problems in the tank and after treating it with antibiotics I had bacterial bloom and lost a lot of my fish (mainly due to my stupid mistake)... including the SAEs. Within a week or two I noticed the black strands on plants and rocks and they started to grow back. After one piece of bogwood was almost completely covered by it, I bought 4 new SAEs. I spent a couple hours pulling the stuff by hand and with SAEs helping me my tank is now completely free from the stuff. And has been for the last 5 months or so. I guess it is still there but just doesn't have a chance againts the team of dedicated SAEs

I hope this helps.

Could it be black beard algae?