Dtacketts step by step is spot on, hence these results.
I would like to link these before and after pics to the perox threads that's really thorough work. ill give it about a week to let any lightening set it, if any, just to show full effect but its basically going to look great.
What you just did is the new way of reefing. Its taken about ten years on the boards if we search to see this process gaining footing, our entire hobby of algae control, all of it, is through the water only and never touching the algae directly. We have been literally told repeatedly that to hand remove the algae is a waste of time, that only actions through the water are justified and theres just no words to explain how weird it feels that the null is the truth. You absolutely can, and just did, will the algae out of your tank.
All the nutrient stuff comes into play, now, after the biomass was removed. Nutrient control is a preventer, not a remover, in the successful mega long term nano aquarium.
its not that using nutrients only to battle algae is bad, it works a lot of the time. The problem was that in making that the only publicly and scientifically-accepted method, about half of all aquariums were left unaddressed, many are not responding to nutrient controls alone and that's how this madness came into demand.
