Black hairs on plants?
 

Lately there's been some balck hairs growing on my amazon sword plants and few other plants. Is this algae? Should I do something about it?

Most likely Black bush algae, getting rid of it can be some what of a challange.
There are a few things we need to know to help out
1, what kind of lights do you have?
2, How long are they on for?
3, Do you use any fertilizers? If so what kind and how often?
4, What kind of plants do you have and how many?
5, What plants have the bba on the leaves?
6, How close are they to the light?
7, How old are your lights?

I think that Boredomb is on the right track. I recently changed lighting and fertilizer in my tank and hair algae started to develop. The plants closest to the light are the most effected.

LoL that's suppose to be Black brush algae sorry.

I also have BBA on some of my plants, some are worse for it that others. Anubias and java fern are good culprits! and just so happens I have BBA on both my Anubias and Java fern. If those plants are kept in full light this will happen, I now have nearly all of my surface covered in floating plants so the light is greatly reduced, and the BBA doesn't grow anymore. but on some leaves there is still some, those leaves are still in full light.

The plants in my tank with the black hairs are the amazon sword, anubias, and another plants am not sure what it's called but it's got long thin leaves... All three plants are in direct light can that be the problem?

LOL :rofl:

This will depend on your lights some but Anubias is low light plant and really needs cover from overhead lights. This one plant that is bad about getting bba if left in direct light. The sword should be fine in direct light. Though at the very top of the leaves closes to the light you could see bba. What is your lighting? How long is it on for? These questions plus the others I asked previously will help in figuring out the problem.

Small doses of excel on the leaves with BBA wil clear it ......for now. Best to find the problem though so it wont keep growing back.

As others mentioned, light is the cause. This is the only algae I battle with generally, and reducing the duration always prevents it from spreading when I do see it. This can mean cutting the daily tank light period back a bit (or reducing the light if there ismore than can be balanced by the nutrients), or in summer blocking the additional brighter/longer daylight entering the room. This refers to the swords which should be in fiarly direct overhead light. The Anubias needs shade, as someone mentioned.

Byron.