Black Hair Algy?? ACK!

[CompMage]

Ok, doing some work on my tank and notices some black hair algy??? growing on a few of my plants. And I can't figure out how to get ride of it without tossing the plants or killing them. Any ideas??? It’s really hard to pull off the plants too.

I currently have 80Watts of light in an estimated 40 - 45 gallons of water after decor and stuff. No CO2 currently, but I'm looking at plans to build my own vs. buying a two Hagen kits. I just can't afford pressurized.

I use API leaf zone to fertilize my plants.

HELP I don't want to destroy my plants!

I'm fiarly new to planted tanks so please bare with me.

 

[rich311k]

Cut off any leaf that has it. You may have to be ruthless. The CO2 will help a lot add it as soon as you can. What are your test levels including phosphate if you have it? You want to keep nitrate to phosphate levels at 10 to 1.

 

[CompMage]

My kit don't test for that. Sorry, I am a noobie at this. I'll grab a API kit this weekend when I have a chance.

How fast do I need to worry about this spreading?

 

[flamingonhot]

Check your iron levels if you can.

I had it before and they said it was do to high iron levels. When i had it it usually stuck to ne plant and didnt really spread.