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Just wondering if anyone can clarify the reason for excessive growth of black "fur" on every part of my 4' tank?

Its really starting to   me off, and wont go away (its also killing plants)

any clues?

To much phosphates in the water. This can be from fish waste, food and the water supply. I would try to look for food that has little to no phosphates (vitamin C) in it.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_algae.htm
http://www.aquariumgarden.com/info.php?doc_base=info/faq/algae.php

Algae Info
There is some very useful information here plus photos to help you.
Possible causes are:-
High nitrate and phosphate levels
strong water aeration
unsuitable light
insufficient water changes.

I hope this helps you.

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Keith

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I had a drama with a thick brown stringy/sludgy algae a while back, which i concluded was excess phosphates.

I ended up having my tap water tested and faound my town water was very high in phosphate levels, hence why I had the problem.

I started using "phosphate bags" (GREEN X brand I think) and they worked well, however they havent seemed to stop this algae (although I removed them a while back as they had been in the canister for over 3 months)

Im a little stumped on how to combat this problem.

I would love to introduce some SAEs, however I have 2 large (6inch) BNs, 3 smaller BNs (1-2inch, the offspring that I never removed with the others) 4 clow loaches (1 larger one 2+inches and 3 all around an inch long)

aswell as 4 red finned black sharks, 4 serpae tetras and 5 rummy noses (sharks are only small, so for now do not present a problem to the tetras)

I would be hesitant to add another breed of bottom feeder to my tank based on the current stock.

anyone care to comment?