barbados08

i have this weird moss or algae growing on my plants it looks like green hairs..,but how do i get them off or do i have to throw them away?

aquarist48

Personally I would leave some algae on them. It's a good sign of oxygen in the water. It's caused by light. Green algae=too much light, brown algae (diatoms) = not enough light. If your plants are plastic I would just rinse them off a few at a time but not all at once. There is good bacteria on them. I leave my lights on 12 hours a day, no more no less. Timers come in handy for the lights. Some of it will go away on it's own over time.

barbados08

they are live plants

barbados08

it is also on my rocks and drift wood

meg1220

I had the same stuff on my plants, driftwood, and even growing in clumps out of my gravel. It came from some plants I bought that were covered with the stuff (I had no idea to look for that at the store). It disapeared pretty quick when I cut back on the number of hours a day the light was on (now 12 hours on a timer). Algae can also be a sign of overfeeding. Good luck!

I just noticed this is in the pond section... I guess if you've got a pond you can't really put lights on a timer...

barbados08

lol thanks i domt know why it is here

agabr123

i think if you use flourish excel that should help get rid of it

meg1220

Would that help the plants out-compete the algae?

agabr123

honestly i have no idea, i read that the flourish excel would help with the hair grass algae (i have the same thing), so i'm planing on trying it whenever i can pick some up

EDIT: oh, but just regular flourish (NOT excel) will supposedly actually speed up the growth of that kind of algae