Algae

[Elisabeth]

Anyone know of any good ways to remove algae from plastic plants? I've scrubbed them for ages but theres still loads left on them.

 

[Dragonslair]

Removing algae on any plastic decor is labour intensive more than expensive.
My suggestion to you is to take out the decor, and have a pan of boiling water to which you add a tablespoon of salt per pint of water. Put your decor in, making sure they won't get damaged by the water and boil for around 3 minutes. Take them out-be careful not to scald yourself, because plastic retains heat. Rinse them under cold water and now scrub off/peel off the remaining algae. At this stage it may be a good precaution to scrub in a little diluted solution of aquarium disinfectant. Leave for a few minutes for the solution to work following the manfacturers instructions on the bottle. Then, give everything a good rinse before returning it back to the tank.
Now you need to check what has caused the algae growth, usually too much lighting. Remember with the recent good weather the tank will absorb light from it's surrounding area as well as the lighting from your lamps. So unless the tank is situated on a dark gloomy corner somewhere, it will be getting natural light. This must be taken into account when calculating the number of hours you have lighting on.

 

[Elisabeth]

Thanks Dragonslair I'll give that a go