Unwanted algae

[Hot Cheetos]

For the past few weeks I've been having a major algae problem in my planted discus tank. They would appear on my gravel, rocks, driftwood, and plants. In fact, the plants stopped growing because of this and some of them are dying which makes me very sad. I tried using algaefix, mixing the gravel, scrubbing it, and so on but they would just grow back the following next day.

The guy at the lfs said I have too much phosphate in my tank when I described him my problem so he recommended Phosguard which I am using now. When I got home and did a little research I am still now certain that this is the correct treatment.

I am not sure what kind of algae I have but I think its either blue green algae, diatom algae, or maybe even hair algae but it looks stringy on my driftwood and plants. I took some pictures below:

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/1935/dsc01209b.jpg
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1006/dsc01208qt.jpg
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/9660/dsc01207l.jpg

Please help me solve this problem. If it helps my tank is about a year and a half old and my light is a Coralife t-5 with daylight and colormax, its about 8 months old.

EDIT: Holy crap! Sorry about the bigass pictures. I linked them instead this time.

[Disgirl]

Hi HC. I had this recently in a small tetra tank. It comes from not enough water changes and not enough water movement in the tank. My tank had low lights and low light plants too. So, up the wc's and add more water movement with your filter or an airstone and pump. What kind of fish are in there? Good luck, and you can win the battle!
Barb:)

[Hot Cheetos]

Hi disgirl. I recently switched to an AC 70 filter and I have it on full blast. I use a bubble wand for my airflow. I do WCs every 2 weeks. Currently I have about 12 rummy noses, 5 long-finned red minor tetras, 2 cardinals, 2 SAE, and 3 discuses. My tank is 40 gallons.

[Wahter]

That's blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria)

Here's a good webpage on the various algae:
http://www.guitarfish.org/algae

A lot of people have had success with using Erythromycin on treating this type of algae.

If you're using a bubble wand, that is working against the live plants because it's breaking up the surface and increasing the gas exchange of CO2. Provided your tank is densely planted and your tank isn't heavily overstocked, you can skip the bubble wand during the day (when plants are using CO2) and turn it on during the night.

Just some ideas for you.


Walter

[Hot Cheetos]

Ohhhhhhh. Thanks Wahter!

So I should ditch the Phosguard media recommended by the lfs right? Also, should I use an air stone instead then? I still have it stored somewhere.