Can I use tap water to kill the algae off of my java moss?

There isn't enough chlorine in tap water to make much difference. Local water reports I have seen suggest that our town's well water has .10 of 1 PPM (parts per million) in it. I can rinse live black worms in the stuff and they continue to thrive!

Another town with lake water (and more bacteria than found in well water) adds .3 of 1 PPM. However cities on the great Lake do add a lot more chlorine to the water after storms (and on Monday mornings) and one can even smell it.

Your idea of soaking your Java fern in clean water is a good one. You didn't mention which of many algae forms has covered it. Some you can rub and wash off. If you have a old, discarded tooth brush you might even gently try to brush some algae species off of the fern.

Black mollies, some barbs like the black ruby barbs will eat algae off of plants. It varies by the kind of algae what fish you may need.

Hair algae is tougher. Pull off as much as you can. Java ferns can be put in almost unlighted tanks and "maybe" the algae will die for a lack of light.

This is one case where the so-called algae eaters (at 1 to 2 inches) will eat the hair algae off of the Java fern. They are great algae eaters at that size, just don't feed them something else for a little time.

However little Chinese algae eaters grow into 9-12 inch, omnivorous, aggressive, territorial killers better knows as Siamese Slime Suckers. I don't have kind suggestions as to what to do with them then.

It is also possible to cover the top of a tank with a heavy feeding plant (such as a lot of Salvinia from an outdoor pond) in a tank. Frequently gravel vacuum and do partial 50% water changes to get the organic out that the algae thrive on. If possible do that 2-3-4 times a week. The water changes and

competing plants are designed to starve the algae. The top plants shade the algae from light.

I was very fortunate to use that approach successfully on a 40-gallon tank with lots of slow growing Anubias and Crypts. Fortunately those plants will endure a lot of shading. The water changes and cutting off of light eliminated a very tough black (sometimes called red) hair algae. It was a lot of work, but that tank has been algae free for five years since.

A safer oxidizer than bleach is Hydrogen peroxide. Wear old clothes and eye coverings. I'd only use that over a sink in a well ventilated area. Stick the plant in maybe a 50-50 solution. When the algae is discolored, pull the plant out and vigorously rinse it under a faucet. Hydrogen peroxide left in the open and sunlight turns to water.

If you are really set on trying on using bleach to clean your fern, having tried everything above and more, get two jars. Set up one with a dechlorinating solution to plunge the treated fern into. :)

Then - outside! - mix a solution of 20 or 30 parts water and 1 part bleach. Wear old expendable clothing and glasses or safety goggles. It wouldn't hurt to use a pair of those cheap rubber gloves often worn while painting.

In the shade outdoors,put the fern in the bleach solution. Watch the fern (not from above the jar) carefully. When the algae is discolored (probably very light) and you have reason to worry about the fern, remove the fern.

Rinse it under a hose over the street (or in a laundry sink just inside the back door) and place it into the dechlorinating solution. You can even leave it over night and then rinse it. But the bleach should be off of the fern in 20 minutes.

There are other kinds of green pests in aquariums such as the blue-green slime. But that is a Cyano-bacteria and can be dealt with in somewhat other ways.

Sometimes we (and I) do need to use a bleach (sodium hypochlorite) solution to sterilize aquarium equipment. But that should be done only if most other solutions to the problem are unavailable (like a soak in a hyper-saline solution of maybe 20 level teaspoons of salt to a gallon of water). And one must always be careful to get the bleach off of the item before putting it back into an aquarium and killing fish.

Good luck in getting that Java fern fit and free of algae.

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that right u should do that so u can clean the tank then when done put back in asap