hello. i recently set up my new 60 gallon tank. i had a 30 gallon set up for two years so i just transferred everything over about 3 weeks ago and i havent had any problems. (YAY!) my previous tank always had a nice amount of green algae on the river rocks and decorations but i never had any problems with brown algae. i had a TON of anacharis in my tank and ALL of it got really gross with hair algae all over it once i transferred it over. it looked bad and dying so i discarded it. now my fake bamboo are covered in this stuff. its not quite brown, but its not quite green either... it is HAIRY.... attached are some pics so you can see what i mean. well, my question is; aside from the gross looks of it, is this stuff harmful at all? is it a warning sign to water problems etc? i have a aqua master 600 on the tank (cycles 600 gallons/ hr) and it has two 40 watt bulbs on it and it is directly across from the window too... so the tank gets plenty of light.

Hi,
Excess light will cause excess algae. Actually, algae growth is the sign of a healthy tank--but it can look bad and clog up filters. I had that hair algae in my tetra tank and I thought it was neat until one of my tetras got so tangled up in that he was almost dead when I finally noticed and untangled him.

So, if I were you, I would take those plants out, clean them and then not have the aquariums lights on for long periods of time.

i tried to clean the algae off of the leaves and it is IMPOSSIBLE. so i soaked it in algae destroyer and let it sit for an hour... then rinsed and tried again, still didnt help...

Algea can be a horrible thing sometimes. I get the same kind of stuff, and it is a pain to get off. I noticed some hair algea in my tank yesturday when I was doing a water change, and I had a hell of a time getting it off. Even scratching it with my nails wasnt cutting it! Yours looks pretty long. Have you tried trimming it?? Also, maybe a scratchy pad might work...

I had that stuff on my live plant and it was awful to try and get rid of! The stuff very hard to get off of stuff, almost impossible to get it off live plants. I had it on my amazon sword and ended up trimming off the infected leaves to get rid of it. I would try maybe soaking your fake plants in a bleach solution, like 10:1, 1o parts water to one part bleach and see if it helps remove it. Luckily I seem to have gotten rid of mine, but it was not easy, that algea is the toughest!

get a pleco or ghost shrimps. it will be gone in no time buddy.

then youll have the ghost shrimp invasion

i do have a pleco... two of them... one of them eats it but he is small and not THAT hungry!!! and i have tried shrimp but my fish are big enough to eat them for dinner...

Im very new to this and cannot offer any advice, but I do have a question. I have learned from you all that algae is beneficial, but I don't like the look of it. I found a product online called Algone. The website is very informative. I was wondering if any one has tried it? Thanks.

some algae can indeed be beneficial, although you really want to try to avoid products like that that destroy plant life(herbicides, is basically what it is)

lower the lighting for the algae to go away... you can try snails...... cough.

I seem to remember reading that bleach is a good way to go if you've got fake plants. Just make sure to dechlorate them afterwards.

both good ideas, except the snails, raith! shame on you! you know better! Lol

I actually am playing around with lighting, and i reduced the light on my big tank by 2 hours a day, and my algae has cut down by at least half!!!

Yay! Way to fight the good fight!

wait, why aren't snails a good idea?

It's okay to have snails in your tank. You just shouldn't rely on them to only eat the algae. They need other veggies too.