Strange Spores (pictured) growing on my plants?

Hi

I've got a 40gallon freshwater tropical fish tank, been established for over a year, which has suddenly developed a rapidly growing sporal infection of some sort. I think it started on my plants, as I noticed a bit of debris clinging to them a couple of days back, but as I'd just done a water change and filter clean I thought it was just some bio residue churned up by the water change.

I looked back tonight and the takn is rapidly filling up with a white spore, which appears to have yellow, almost calcified chunks in it. My fish don't seem overly bothered, althgough I have one catfish which usually spends his day hiding under a large piece of wood, who has started spending a lot of time at the surface. I've also notifed an increased level of algae in the tank, but this could potentially be accounted for by my pleck also avoiding the spores?

I've searched the net, but have been unable to find any trace of reference to this sort of problem, so I've added a couple of pictures below in the hope that somebody can help diagnose this problem, and advise whether it poses any urgent threat to my fish (it'll be at least 12 hours before I can get to a fish shop, as it's Sunday evening here in the UK).

Thanks very much in advance for any help provided.

Alex.

As your plants die back and decay this lets in fungal spores and they will rapidly take over. I would remove anything dying and give it a good gravel vac.
What are your nitrate levels at and how much and how often per week are you doing water changes?

Do as black angel has said, and do a vac and water change, as the catfish shouldn't be at the top of the tank.

I've removed all the vegetation from the tank, as it's all affected, and done a good water change and vac. I can't get you an accurate nitrate level at the moment as my nitrate testing kit appears to have been stolen by my girlfriend, but I do about a 20-25% change once a week, and (although admittedly I've been lazy in testing recently) the tank's nitrate levels have been stable since the tank was first broken in (whilst the catfish has been spending a lot of time at the top of the tank these last few days, neither he nor the other fish have shown any signs of difficulty or illness, as I'd expect to see in fish affected by nitrate poisoning)

Is there a treatment I should use to get rid of the remaining spores (I'm a bit concerned about putting new plants in the tank immediately in case they also start to be eaten), or will the remaining spores dissipate by themselves?

Thanks very much for the advice so far.

Alex.

Just keep dong a few daily water changes to remove the spores, don't no anything on plants so can't help in that area i'm afraid, good luck.

You would need to get more info from the plant section, but it may come down to lighting.

black angel said:

You would need to get more info from the plant section, but it may come down to lighting.

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It's on a timer switch, 12 hours of light daily. Never had any problems of this sort previously.

I guess from the above responses it's not fatal to the fish as long as I get it under control, so thanks for your responses, and apologies if I posted to the wrong part of the forum in error. Better safe than sorry tho, as I'm sure you understand.

Alex.

Just wondering if maybe you could be over feeding and its rotting on the gravel and spreading. Its probably not but its best to ask. No, you havent posted in the wrong section as you said, better safe than sorry.