Help With Algae

[akudewan]

I've got this annoying algae, thats covering my grass, and the edges of broad leafed plants. Some pics:

And here is a close-up:

Whats this algae? it looks more like dirt rather than algae. How do I get rid of this? What does this algae indicate? do I have excess nutrients?

Thanks in advance.
-Aku

 

[karlp]

it looks like a type of hair algae, but I 'm not entirely sure.

What are your tanks stats ?

Tank size
Fish Stock
Lighting setup
How long are the lights on each day
How often and what sized water changes do you do
Nitrate reading ?
Phosphate reading ?
KH ?

 

[akudewan]

Here are my tank stats, I forgot to tell them, my bad:

Tank size: 23 gallons.

Fish Stock: 5 Wiidow Tetras. 5 Serpae Tetras.. 3 swordtails. 4 Albino Corys.

Lighting setup: a 20 watt hitachi aquarium lamp, and two 14 watt cool daylight fluorescent lamps. That comes to 2.08 wpg

Light duration: 12 hours.

Water changes: 30% WC every week.

The tank is cycled and matured, over a year and a half old now.

Some more important points that I must mention: I haven't added any fertilizers since the past 2 weeks. I added a few drops today. This is a pre-formulated pmdd mixture that I bought from someone.

Also, when my swordtails try to eat the algae, most of it goes poof like smoke, and only a few hairy strands remain. Something tells me this is dust caught up in strands of hair algae.

Edit: Hey I managed to remove most of this stuff with a paintbrush