Fibrous material on my plants.

[SeanMurphy]

I've got some strange, light colored fibrous material clinging to my fake plants in my tank (29g). I've snapped a couple shots of it.

http://tinyurl.com/yhlsab
http://tinyurl.com/ybbvq8
http://tinyurl.com/ymdmq4

It started building up noticably a few weeks ago, so I cut back on feeding a little, but I keep the light on (25w) most of the time, to help out the fledgling real plant that I picked up from Walmart of all places (washed thoroughly before insertion into the thank).

The tank is currently populated with about a dozen livebearers (platy, molly, guppy), as well as a single pleco and 3 corys. There's also an undisclosed amount of trumpet snails burrowing around in the substrate.

Anyone have any idea what it might be? The fish don't seem terrible bothered by it, but neither do I see any of them making any attempt to clean it up, except for one of the corys who likes to lay half sideways in the big plant and chow down.

 

[BillD]

looks like algae. try reducing the lighting period to around 10 to 12 hours per day.

 

[SeanMurphy]

I should clarify. When I said I kept the light on "most of the time", I meant "most of the time I'm awake". So I guess it's on for about 12 to 14 hours a day, most days. I'll try reducing that a bit and see what happens.

 

[fynnie]

You know that looks odd, in one shot I would swear it looks like your plant is fraying and the picture of the real plant it kinda resembles fish poop. Pull out the fake plant and have a closer inspection wash it off and see if it comes back.
Check out the planted tank forum, there is a couple of postings there about doing a 3 day blackout to kill algae too.

 

[mrzap]

Looks like blackbeard algae. If you have a chemical filter try replacing it and doing a water change. Try to get your nitrates lower. That worked for me.