How do I get rid of hair algae in pico tank?

[newreeferboi]

Hello everyone! This is my 3 gallon aio pico tank. It’s been up for 1 year now.

The algae was controlled for a while but now there has been a hair algae breakout how do I reduce this.

I’m not sure what invert would help. I only have 1 astrea snail in here. What crab or snail should I add to my clean up crew.

 

[newreeferboi]

the reason you have to study the thread, and know those basics is because cleaning out a system allowed to fill with waste and algae is true tank surgery

it's worth the time to study the thread a few hours, it's taking apart a pico, cleaning it the right way (replacing the bed is an option, you'd still pre rinse the sandbed as all jobs did there we never skip that part) and putting it back together without waste or invasion. it saves you having to wait 14 months for half the return on effort and a lot more cost

it shows that at any moment you can instantly turn around a misbehaving nano, if that was a 200 gallon reef you'd be stuck with hands off options. if you study the flow they did and apply it in your tank, the takedown + clean + reassembly process your tank will shine.

Okay here’s the plan.

I will remove the dotty back and add 2 hermits to prevent algae after. Then I will break down tank leaving filter media, coral and rocks in buckets of water clean tank rinse new sand until clear scrub rocks and reduce lighting.

 

[brandon429]

that's the general flow yes but there were nuances found only in studying the thread

such as lowering your light levels in the new tank after the clean rebuild

and keeping fish covered, they can jump out while in holding

did you see how many times tap water rinsing was required to get the sand clean? it will be like 100 rinse actions before it rinses clean, the final rinse is in saltwater and this is the most important part of the whole job, that you rinse the sandbed correctly so that when reassembled the water is 1000% clear

that will take probably two hours to pre sand in multiple tap water rinses in little sections from a small bucket outside. fill, swirl with a spatula to make a cloud, dump, repeat until that section is totally clean. final rinse in saltwater then set it over in the cleaned out tank to have all new water matching temp and salinity of your old water back in, along with the rocks detailed.

you saw how each rock was set out on the counter, detailed with a knife tip/rinsed in saltwater until clean then peroxide was applied only to the areas that formerly had algae, you caught that part right (getting that algae unanchored off your rocks was the chief goal of this power move)

only begin after you can imagine those cleaning steps ahead of time and you have plenty extra saltwater, take time to prepare and execute, having a bunch of pre heated / salinity set water ready for the clean job takes time

you saw how the tanks were taken apart and the tank was 100% cleaned while empty, dried out and cleaned, then cloudless sand was set back in

then the detailed rocks

then refilled with the prep water

then animals set back in, lighting reduced a little / slow ramp up over the next 10 days

that's the right order and detail for your job

 

[newreeferboi]

that's the general flow yes but there were nuances found only in studying the thread

such as lowering your light levels in the new tank after the clean rebuild

and keeping fish covered, they can jump out while in holding

did you see how many times tap water rinsing was required to get the sand clean? it will be like 100 rinse actions before it rinses clean, the final rinse is in saltwater and this is the most important part of the whole job, that you rinse the sandbed correctly so that when reassembled the water is 1000% clear

that will take probably two hours to pre sand in multiple tap water rinses in little sections from a small bucket outside. fill, swirl with a spatula to make a cloud, dump, repeat until that section is totally clean. final rinse in saltwater then set it over in the cleaned out tank to have all new water matching temp and salinity of your old water back in, along with the rocks detailed.

you saw how each rock was set out on the counter, detailed with a knife tip/rinsed in saltwater until clean then peroxide was applied only to the areas that formerly had algae, you caught that part right (getting that algae unanchored off your rocks was the chief goal of this power move)

only begin after you can imagine those cleaning steps ahead of time and you have plenty extra saltwater, take time to prepare and execute, having a bunch of pre heated / salinity set water ready for the clean job takes time

you saw how the tanks were taken apart and the tank was 100% cleaned while empty, dried out and cleaned, then cloudless sand was set back in

then the detailed rocks

then refilled with the prep water

then animals set back in, lighting reduced a little / slow ramp up over the next 10 days

that's the right order and detail for your job

Yep read the thread, thanks!

 

[newreeferboi]

Okay y’all I did everything I said I would in the previous post and here are the results almost a week later. I and keeping only blue light and getting some hermit crabs to prevent gha from coming back. I am also only keeping the light in for 7 hours a day. The only thing I’m dissatisfied with is I think I was to roughy when handling the Xenia looking frag and most of it died. But there is still a good chunk of the colony on the rock that I have no doubt will take over the rock soon. I redid the aqua scape with islands for the xenia looking coral and I am starting a zoa garden so that they are separate. But I’ll keep you all updated.