brown balls growing on everything

Question
i have a 100 gallon freshwater tank with exotic angelfish...2 power heads with an undergravel filter and a large canister filter...nitrates, ammonia, phosphates are 0..ph is 6.8   perfect for angelfish.

do a 20% water change weekly with soft water.

my tank is spotless except for these brown algae balls or tufts growing on the sides of the tank, on filter components, plants, driftwood...only way to rid the tank of it is to scrap it off and cut the plants it is growing on...i have tried  many algae rid products including the highly touted ALGONE for 6 weeks with little positive results....

my tank is deep, 30 inches, so i havve 440 watts of compact fluorescent lighting.

can you help me...thank you, regards, john weber

Answer
Hello,

I'm sorry, but I had a little difficulty picking the question out of there. I believe you are wanting to rid your tank of algae, so I will discuss that. Follow-ups welcome!

Ok, firstly, algae is not a bad thing. I recommend scraping it off the glass and filter and such, but you can leave a little on the decoration and plants. Fish in the wild live with algae all the time. Occasionally it is a good idea to wash all decorations and gravel to rid it of algae and start fresh.

Secondly, I find algae removal products to be mostly worthless so if you would like to remove the algae, unfortunately the only way is to do what you are doing and scrape it off or clip it off, but like I said, algae is not a bad thing. You say your water conditions are perfect, so I wouldn't worry too much. Just make sure you have an air stone because algae takes oxygen from the water.

Hope this helps.

From Stephanie