it is for sure better than letting it self-seat further. these tufts of algae become little microcosms of self support, they literally catch and hold detritus to rot in place, and not be exported from the tank. actually targeting algae directly can kill it off independent from nutrients, that's why all the pico reefs on nano-reef.com have no algae we're peroxide zappers. Its not natural, its a total cheat, and to not have algae in the first place would have been ideal and for 17 yrs of reefing ive been trying to get that ideal but I found that early guidance for the system makes the algae come back less and less to the point I don't have to manage it anymore, and I have no idea what my nutrient params are I don't own test kits to know.
I attacked algae over and over till it died but it wasn't just pouring over the target either, it was using a steak knife to score off all the algae roughly, taking some topical scrapes on the rock too until that section was clear of algae. I only used peroxide as the final rinse on the cleaned areas, the rasping made those areas algae free like an urchin does. adding that physical destruction element is important as it kills the holdfasts, when we get growback after a peroxide treatment its because the holdfasts were in the rock crevices and weren't fully killed
removing the topical growth of the plant mass first allows for direct holdfast attack thereafter. less growback
I find nutrient management only important for making me have to garden less. its true I used to change my water more often during the guiding phase; I knew nutrients contributed to algae but managing nutrients wasn't required to get my tank into compliance.
