White hair like algae in tank

[Ima Newbie]

I have a 55 gal tank. There is a fine white hair like algae growing on everything. It dosnt seem to be on the walls of the tank. I have a pleco, that could be why. But it is on the decorations, the gravel, everything. Is it algae or some kind of fungus? I have only seen green algae, not white.
Help!

 

[tstenback]

Most likely a fungus or mould from a unclean substrate. Had this happen one time when i was unable to clean the gravel...i believe it was duriing a cycle with fish back on one of my first tanks. Didnt know how much or what to feed the fish so i used lots of food and frozen worms and i ended up with a mess. I just carefully pulled/scraped it off the bottom bit by bit one section at a time until the whole tank was done. As i completed about 1/4 of the tank i cleaned the gravel there and then moved on to the next section a few days later so that i did not destroy the bacteria colony. HTH