Hair algae

[brencrazy]

how to remove it? Crabs? Snails?

 

[twilliard]

A turbo snail will have fun on that rock :)

Wish I could grow algae :(

 

[MaccaPopEye]

While some snails will help, at the end of the day adding more living creatures is just going to increase your bio load and create more nutrients.

The snails will eat the algae, digest the algae and it will become waste which turns into nitrates and eventually into more algae. You need to either lower nutrients going in or increase nutrients going out. Preferably both.

Lowering nutrients in is generally done by less feeding.

Increasing nutrients out can be done by any of the following (or combination of):
Increased water changes (increased frequency and/or volume)
Growing macro algae (in a fuge, or my favourite with an algae turf scrubber)
Using GFO
Carbon dosing
Larger skimmer

I have probably missed some but those are the most common methods I know of (roughly in order of easiest/cheapest to more expensive/hardest).

I would highly recommend an algae turf scrubber. Very easy and cheap to implement and very effective.

 

[twilliard]

Also to add to the list
Kill any living algae and spores
then never introduce into the tank again.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

Manual removal is good but isn't hair algae naturally occurring so killing spores won't matter?

I thought that's how people can start an ATS on a new tank even if it has dry rock?

 

[brandon429]

How about this angle


This is a pico reef, a 2 or 3 gal

What are the longest living most algae free 2-3 gal tanks using to get that age and cleanliness? Can be searched

Replicating what's documented is one way to be algae free. Or innovate something new too, at least both options are there. Quick summary: make sure lights being used can be made to go easier on white spectrum and more blue

If not, it just means you'll need to hand guide it more. You would take out the rocks and set them on the counter for a few mins, harmless, and use a metal tool or knife tip to scrape off the algae very detailed like a dentist scrapes plaque. As you scrape off each area, treat it with hydrogen peroxide right on the spot cleaned, and let that sit one min or so as you work on all spots. Don't put it on things that aren't that green algae just be detailed scraping and peroxide dosing then rinse it all off, do a 100% water change, and put the clean rocks back in. That's the longest documented method there is, to innovate something new is another option too.


There is not any time in pico reefing that a 90-100% water change is bad, even if you did one in the morning and at night

This lessens over time as your tank matures. The more aggressive you are with water changes, the longer a pico reef lives says the very old pico reef.


It is 100% right that algae is cyclic and will be reimported and fed. Simply repeat. If you find a combo of filtration additives that prevent this kind of hand guiding that's ideal, but doesn't factor at all into whether your tank has algae problems or not.

 

[brencrazy]

How about this angle


This is a pico reef, a 2 or 3 gal

What are the longest living most algae free 2-3 gal tanks using to get that age and cleanliness? Can be searched

Replicating what's documented is one way to be algae free. Or innovate something new too, at least both options are there. Quick summary: make sure lights being used can be made to go easier on white spectrum and more blue

If not, it just means you'll need to hand guide it more. You would take out the rocks and set them on the counter for a few mins, harmless, and use a metal tool or knife tip to scrape off the algae very detailed like a dentist scrapes plaque. As you scrape off each area, treat it with hydrogen peroxide right on the spot cleaned, and let that sit one min or so as you work on all spots. Don't put it on things that aren't that green algae just be detailed scraping and peroxide dosing then rinse it all off, do a 100% water change, and put the clean rocks back in. That's the longest documented method there is, to innovate something new is another option too.


There is not any time in pico reefing that a 90-100% water change is bad, even if you did one in the morning and at night

This lessens over time as your tank matures. The more aggressive you are with water changes, the longer a pico reef lives says the very old pico reef.


It is 100% right that algae is cyclic and will be reimported and fed. Simply repeat. If you find a combo of filtration additives that prevent this kind of hand guiding that's ideal, but doesn't factor at all into whether your tank has algae problems or not.

Thank you