wierd furry growth on plastic plants

Question
Hi Christy,

20 gal freshwater tank with no live plants.  Water is clear, no algae on sides.  Blue gravel bottom.  Plecostomus, Corydoras, Gourami, Danio fish.  No fish have died for many months.

I get black, furry growth maybe 1/8" long on edges of plastic plants.  I thought it might be some kind of algae, but Plecostomus and Corydoras don't eat it.

It really makes the tank look ugly.  Could this be a fungus or is it a kind of algae?  How would I get rid of it?

Thanks in advance,

James.

Answer
Hi James
Sounds to me like it's beard algae.  Here's a great link that explains it more, need to copy/paste to your browser:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/maintenance1/p/algaebeard.htm

There's a few treatments listed on there, I would say go with removing all the affected plants or rocks and scrub and soak them in a bleach & water solution.  Rinse them well, and I'd time it so you do it the same time as a water change.  That way when you replace the items back in the tank, you're already adding a dechlorinator when adding the new tap water, so that'll make sure to neutralize any chlorine/bleach off the plants/rocks.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your algae :)

Christy