it puts an entirely different spin on your algae invasion to consider that any reef in Fiji will grow GHA if grazers haven't selected to graze there. That makes control options open up for you much wider than previously. Clearly, attacking through the water isn't required but is the common option. if you get tired of it not taking out the last % of non grazed legit reef growth, options exist to simply make it go away as well regardless of grazing or not. The cause of your algae is available light, nutrients, and imported algae. that in no way implies the measures were out of whack, just that algae doesn't require a lot of extra to thrive, it requires being optionally left in the system.
certain perspectives of algae control come with hundreds of pages of thread posts, this helps in discerning options. finding things that get recurring positive outcomes helps narrow down options.
the right grazer is what you need if natural options are the only ones wanted. plan your chemistry around your corals, not the algae, so the corals wont starve/ we aren't allowed in reefing to simply disallow the algae independent of nutrients, so many will not.
the large threads are comprised of, interestingly:
-taking control of all topical sandbed invaders, disallowing them, and keeping the sb clean.
-disallowing all benthic invading algae independent of tank nutrients, so that nothing dictates whether or not algae thrives in your tank.
you could easily build and attempt a giant plant system to try it naturally, if leaving it in place is still preferred. ATS have giant good threads with proofs, more natural methods. if your tank was mine, the algae would be required to be gone by next Friday./
we make big threads using detritus rejection and chemical killing of algae, unnatural means, forced control and compliance by a given date means and that's not for everyone. plant based systems thrive from allowing detritus and wastes to reduce in the system, and bind them as compounds which has various pros and cons as well. either way, several methods are in threads right now that can fix your tank with good documentation, just have to select one and run it fully before moving on IMO
