Katie you need to siphon that hair algae out. Thats really bad.
Dont you ever use a siphon tube to vacume your tank? Yes doing
lots of water changes help. But there is a reason you are having such
a problem. First off I would bet you are over feeding. 1 small bit of
wasted food will feed the algae for a week. Second you need to test
your water. You may have phosphates. Third you need more flow.
Algae grows better in stagnate conditions. You also need to find out
for sure what water you are using. Dont guess if its RO/DI..Find out.
Also if you never tried to siphon the algae out, its just going to
spread like a weed.
FYI...Bottle water has phosphates in it too. I use 12 stage filtrated
water with 100% pure ozone in it. I get it from a place called Water to
Go...They are all over the U.S..Not sure about Canada. Its the purest
water ive seen yet.
Here is my 3 gal pico and besides a tiny tiny bit of red hair algae, ive never
had a problem..I do a 10% water change once a week. I dose with Purple
Up,Strontium and molybdenum, Marine buffer PH.
Livestock are
1 Orchid Dottyback
1 Peppermint shrimp
1 Zebra Hermit
2 nass snails
1 atlantic nass snail
1 Turbo Snail
Here is a pic after 4 months and before the corals.
Equipment is
2- Red Sea Nano filters (one with a bag of Seachem Purigen, the other with pads)
1- 80gph nano power head
1-24 watt PC with 50/50
5 LED Moonlights