Black algae

[ogopogo]

I've started to get some black feathery-like algae growing on the tips of some of the plants in my 3-year old planted community tank. Any ideas what the name of this stuff is and how to get rid of it?

[Roland]

i once had algae that I believe was hair algae, and if thats what you've got, its a nightmare to get rid of. Its very difficult to remove manually. But I read that if you can starve algae of phosphate they will die, but at the same time your plants need this. So its a case of trying to get the plants to 'out compete' the algae for the phosphate, which you should try and reduce (not erradicate). Try planting fast growing plants to do this. Dont take what Ive just said as fact, cos its only what I remember reading.

Hope this helps

[wetmanNY]

Sounds like the black brush algae discussed at thekrib.com: http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/red-algae.html