Seriously Thick Algae...

[Faramir]

I have a strange problem in my planted tank.

I have an alga growing on the older vallis leaves. It is a thread alga, but it's much, much thicker than normal thread algae. It's quite dark green in colour, and looks and feels like sewing cotton. Individual threads are firmly attached to the leaves and are up to a couple of inches in length.

As it only seems to grow on old leaves that are dying anyway I just pull of the affected leaves. It tends also to grow only near the water surface.

I'll see if I can get a piccy but my digital camera's fairly basic and may not work this close up.

Anyone have any thoughts?

[djlen]

It definitely sounds like Black Beard Algae. Cut it away from any plant it's on. Take any devices(filters,downspouts,wood) that can be dipped in bleach and dip them to kill this algae. Don't underestimate it, BBA is a tough one to get rid of unless you're aggressive with it. Also, you're going to need to do large water changes 2-3 times a week paying particular attention to keeping the substrate free of standing mulm.
If the above measures come up short you may have to do a black out of the tank.
Then you've got to deal with the reason it started to grow in the first place.
Len

[Faramir]

Thanks for responding, but this is not black beard algae. I've seen that before. This stuff is single thick strands. It looks exacty as if someone's taken a few inches of green sewing thread and left it to float around until it got caught up in the Vallis.

[djlen]

Sorry, not a clue on that one here. Let us know if you find out what it is though.
Len

[famman]

Thread algae, green-thread algae
either bleach everything you can along with a blackout or get your plants to outgrow it with adjustments to c02, nutrients, lighting.
do a search on the forums there are numerous references.
good luck
:)