How do I keep real plants clean?

I have two real plants in my freshwater aquarium. I keep the aquarium very clean to keep the fish healthy; however, one of my live plants have lots of algae on it and just looks nasty now- what can I do to clean it?

I obviously cannot remove it from the tank because it will uproot it so any other ways would be helpful.

How do I keep real plants clean?
I would gently brush off the algae with a tooth brush or something soft. You have to be gentle. But after doing this be sure to have a net in hand or you can do a water change right after and make sure that you get all of that algae out of the tank.
Reply:It would depend on what algae you have. Algae thrives when plant growth get stunted due to lack of some nutrient or even light! In some situations the plants will be fine until they outgrow their available nutrients and then algae takes over!



Slow growing plants will naturally get covered with algae very easily compared to fast growing plants.
Reply:You will need to remove the plant gently from the tank to clean it or you will just spread the algae to the rest of your tank. Put the plant in a bucket of dechlorinated water and gently try to remove the algae with your hands. If the plant does not have delicate leaves you can use a very soft bristle brush (live a toothbrush) to try remove some of the algae also. After you are done rinse the plant in dechlorinated water and replant it.



EDIT: You can also try adding otocinclus to your tank. They are one of the only fish that will eat algae off of plants and are great for a planted tank
Reply:Depending on the size of your aquarium, get a plecostamus. They're good at keeping algae down.
Reply:I have a few live plants in my freshwater tank. I've had the same issue with a couple of my established plants. I literally put my hands in the tank and rubbed off the algae then did a water change. I've never lost a plant doing this. I washed my hands first then rinsed very well before doing this. While this isn't a "best practice" per se, I've never had a problems as a result of doing this.