Algea, moss or fungi

DixyDan

hello fellow fish keepers
im new on this site but i have been keeping tropical fish for over 10years now and i mainly keep plecs. cut a long story short.....i bought a new tank (2nd hand) in Sept this year, all set up and running a external filter, all my plants are fake/plastic. i am finding a like growth on my stones and plants, its a really deep purple/brown, the growth then starts growing like hairs and becomes very thick and visable. i have trawled though pic's to try and identify it and its really bugging me. it does not seem to affect my fish. i have added some pics in my albums titled the same as this thread

DD

Boredomb

It looks very much like Black brush algae too me. How long are your lights on for? Do you clean the gravel at all?? This Algae won't hurt anything.

Byron

Yes, that is brush algae in the photos. This is technically a red algae, though usually we see it as gray/black in hue.

Harmless as Boredomb said. And without live plants, actually beneficial because it functions similar to plants in assimilating nutrients and releasing oxygen, though not as much as live plants would.

And, welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping forum.

Byron.

DixyDan

thanks to both for your response, certainly looks the same