Hairs on sword.

[pjeff]

I have a ten gallon planted tank and i bought a sowrd and and it recently started to sprout black hair like alge off of the leaves does anyone kno anything about this stuff and what are some effective ways to remove the alge

 

[Moe]

Black hair algae or black beard algae is really hard to get rid of. There are very few fish that will eat it. SAE is one but it can get up to 6 inches, not good for a 10G. I got BBA from overfertilizing my tank. BBA sometimes grows because of excess nutrients in the tank. Planting some fast growing plants in the tank is a good way to get rid of BBA. The fast growing plants will use up the nutrients and the BBA will starve. It worked for me.

 

[fish lady]

I have loads of it on one of my Amozonian Swords and on a few blades of vallis. But since I put my fish on a diet they (the mollies) have been eating it constantly! Its nearly all gone now!

Although, if this stuff grows when their are too many nutrients in the water is it possible that cutting down the amount of food you give them (to reduce the waste) might help reduce it too?

 

[Rose]

Your black algae is really a type of red algae. Here's a link that might help you out. red algae