in the vast majority of tanks that present for algae problems in our peroxide work threads across forums, they're already running refugia, po4 controls, no pox, the right fish, the right cuc, the right nitrate controls, and they still have algae. In the end you need to use a way that works independently of 3rd party gear. all that stuff does is prevent you from curing your own algae issue / saves work. they will not prevent a tank loss to invasion minus the correct intervention at just the right time. whether or not a tank has invasion issues is fully independent of its nutrient control scheme, we see invasions across all setups.
the people who are great at commanding one of the preventative options in their own tanks have a near impossible time commuting that action to others consistently in large collection threads. what works for the masses is very different than what works in a master's home setting that's for sure. the masses need cheats and so do I.
*if someone wants to start off not cheating, that's fine. but you make a setpoint...(if algae X winds up growing here, where there currently is none, then its cheat time) and stick to it.
The sole cause of lost tanks to invasion is a psychology where they will ride out the invasion until total loss, watching it take over, when intervention threads are quite good nowadays at heading off the total loss. its rarely an actual invader problem, its a willingness problem on the part of the keeper. sometimes its a knowledge issue/didn't know a cheat save was possible.
That tank above can be kept algae free forever not even measuring any params or ever having the rocks taken over. If an area of rock misbehaves, take out the rock and kill the algae, be creative. done. minor hand guiding until it all cakes in coralline is the real key, coralline algae is a staunch invasion-resisting substrate, second only to actual coral flesh.
