nice details and pics here. my reco based off the algae correction threads+ perox:
1. adjust no nutrients down in response via the water column (the opposite of what nearly everyone would do) which may work, but for other reasons its my #1 no. corals are not harmed here, corals look great. we can kill algae wo stressing their nutrient acclimations its not that nutrients alone can't cure your prob...we get too many bleached outcomes for me to endorse it as a first go. removing protein stores via manual labor is the first go, its always safe and never bleaches **the time we would institute nutrient control is only after the entire system has been cleaned from the bottom up, as a preventative, we never wield nutrients as an algae remover or starver in our cure threads. we went backwards to the norms and saved many more tanks/gained a mil after pics.
2. hand clean out the system vs allowing protein stores to stay in place from any feeding issues if you have nutrient problems. if anyone overfed, lets just clean out the tank and start fresh. If getting that much water ready is a prob, drain the water cleanly into T cans and we can reuse it. Imagine trying to reduce nitrates and po4 in that water, when the sandbed is clean vs still feeding the water column, as is now (check the sandbed in a small area to see how much it clouds) You can still rip clean this tank back to no nitrate storage, and not have to make up + 100 gallons of water. put the water-needing-touchup back on top of clean stuff. we have a large thread of several doing that to pre scan the outcomes. the official sand rinse thread here.
3. take no action on the algae targets themselves other than a test rock, before experimenting with the main tank. Rip cleaning that large tank without losing animals/skip cycle reassembly is not the experimental part. That's how we run all pico reefs, its a manner of care. The experiment is using peroxide or starvation on any particular algae before we have modeled and known if that method works via simply a smaller rock. we take that accessible test rock out, and use a steak knife to surgically score it free like a crazy dentist wearing a nitrous mask at work. score the algae out like a parrotfish bites a rock of it in the wild, surgically remove all the valonia. Use peroxide as your rinse on the cleaned spots, see how that mode is a massive amplifier towards your goal? the knife did all the real work, like the scraper is what really gets our teeth clean and not a toothbrush. good dentists leave us bleeding a bit about the gums and mouth #thefear. algae is bested in that manner. after all work is done carefully around corals (we applied no peroxide to nontargets so far, they just sat in the air while we worked) put the test rock back and just watch it a week or so compared to other rocks before we go Friday the 13th on them. Usually the test rock indicates such great growback control, its worth upscaling to the whole tank.
there are easier ways to fix your algae than the above, but we get 100% outcomes off the above so its all I recommend. this is specifically why I only want a reef tank of one gallon max.
