fuzz algae

["Daphne Freeman" <daphne.freeman at charter_net>]

I am a current member of the persistent algae club as well!

Is there a source for good close up pictures of the various algae's?  I have
had a problem with one for a long time but have never determined exactly
what it is. Mine is branched, 1/4 to 1/2 long, dark green filaments that
form a clump.  It sticks to stuff so effectively that you can pick up one
piece of Flourite that has it attached and three other pieces of Flourite
may come out with the algae holding them together like a necklace.  I
thought it was the same as Dave G's from the list (our descriptions sounded
similar) but determined that we had completely different algaes the last
time I was over at his house. It is so hard to determine from a description
but I can't find any good pictures. I have looked in all my books but
haven't seen it.  According to an old post by Karen Randall, Barry James has
a picture of Claudophora in a tank on pg 24-5 of his Aquarium Plants book
but the picture is too small to tell if that is what I have or not.
Everything I have found online shows pictures under the microscope.  Is
there an algae book or something?

Black out doesn't work on this stuff either.  Bleaching does but I had to
make it so strong that I fried my red barclayas and java fern! I am not sure
the fern is dead, the barclayas are.

I have done water changes and tried to be consistent with fertilizers etc.
It may be tied to nitrate levels though.  Tom Barr told me to never let
nitrates get to 0!  I hadn't seen any of the algae in a while but my
nitrates got down to zero (I think).  Last week, I compared a Lamotte
reading (octet reading * 4.4) and got 12, my Seachem was reading 1.3.
Nitrates did bottom out to zero according to the Seachem and I got them back
up to around 8 according to the same kit.  However, if the Lamotte is
correct then I didn't get to zero but I have gotten levels rather high.
Phosphates had gotten a bit high at 8 but everything else was in acceptable
tolerances.  This weekend, I cleaned my Eheim (it had been about 6 months),
hoses and CO2 reactor.  We'll see if that makes a difference.

Flag fish will eat it but they eat my other plants too!  Amano shrimp, ottos
and SAE's won't eat it.  We'll see if my new farlowella is interested!

Thanks.

Daphne in Atlanta, where we have had no rain since the third week of June!