Hi,
I have been battling a green water problem (in another thread), and another thing that I needed advice on was that fuzzy black stuff (algae?) has been covering my plants. Its stuck on pretty good, is there any way (easy or hard) of getting off the plant? I tried rubbing it gently, it won't come off. Picking them off seems to take chunks off the leaves. Any way to loosen them or to get rid of them? It makes my tank look really gross, since literally 75%+ of the leaves of my plants are covered in the black fuzzy stuff.

On the upside, my green water seems to be going away on its own.. at least a bit.

Thanks for any help!

When that happens to my plants,I buy a soft toothbrush from the dollar store and use them to scrub my plant leaves. It's soft enough as to where I don't rip the leaves,and yet coarse enough to where it actually takes it off. I have toothbrushes for all of my tanks for one reason or another !

Wow, didn't think of that! Do you put it in some water then brush it, or do it in the air? I was just wondering what works best. Going to try it out tomorrow if I have time

Thanks, Devs! I've got the exact same problem with my Amazon Sword plant. The fuzzy black algae coats the leaves constantly, so I've tried scrubbing them with the algae scrubber, but what has worked best is scraping it off with a fingernail. I'll have to try your idea!

However, the darn algae is really selective. It is only on the uppermost leaves of the Amazon Sword, and on the heater, thermometer, driftwood, and all over the sponge that covers the filter intake. But it hasn't touched any of my other plants, the sides of the tank, the rocks or gravel, or anything else. Is this weird??

I take a bowl of tank water and pull my plants out,but see that's easy for me because all my plants are growing in glass votive type cups and such.It's the only way they won't float from the Goldies messing with them. Never ever though, should you put your Aquarium toothbrush any where near your real one....I used to hang one in the bathroom for the tank upstairs,but......

I remember the Old fingernail days... That took forever. Are all those things on the same side of the tank that's bothered by it? I have some sort of tall rubberlike plant(Can't remember name off hand),and I also have an Anubia Coffee that this happens to.The other plants are okay.If the black Algae build up goes on too long without getting scraped off,it may be near impossible to get it completely free and clear,but my trusty toothbrush gets alot of it off for sure.

I buy light colored tootbrushes and write on them with a black Sharpie FISH ONLY. I do this with my syringes too, I use oral medication syringes for many things, like measuring water for tests, squirting out low-flow areas, starting my siphon, etc. Those also have FISH ONLY on them, especially since my daughter also uses these syringes for her tube feedings...that would be SO GROSS.

But I might have to play that toothbrush trick on my fiance, the next time he says something deragatory about my fish...

Hey!!! That was one time & one time only!!! I now make sure that those toothbrushes look nothing like mine! And actually,now that I'm thinking about it,that would be a nice "Payback" for the Boyfriend for when he does talk crap on your fish!

I tried using a toothbrus and it won't come off . Even if I brush pretty hard, only some bits come off. The vast majority stay on. I then tried the fingernail method, and I ended up ripping some of the leaves. Are there any alternatives? Something that will loosen their grip on my plant? I was thinking of drying up the leafs of the plants and then maybe it could be easy to pick off?

You must have some pretty tough stuff,or it's been on there a long time.If you let the leaves dry up,they will eventually die off. The only other thing that I've done myself is mixing Household Bleach with water-something like 1 part Bleach to 19 parts water? I've done that to disinfect,and it definately takes Algae off of Plants-However,even though I've experienced this more than once,Bleach has killed my plants on more than one occasion(I think I left them in too long).You just have to be really careful,rinse-rinse again,and keep rinsing until no Bleach smell is detected. Maybe try quick dipping for a few seconds then gently scrubbing with the tooth brush.