My algae is getting out of control

[GARRIGA]

There was a thread I read where a few users started having STN when they began carbon dosing. It may be coincidental, and dosing into a reactor may not really add any benefit compared to dosing the tank but I don’t mind adding a diy filter.
Also, in the thread started by Donovan he said that his design would help prevent bacteria blooms in the tank and reduce the odds of getting cyano (I don’t know if either of those things are common problems or not with normal carbon dosing).

Regardless how carbon is introduced it makes it to the display quickly. Unless water traveling through the reactor slow enough to be fully utilized by the bacteria using it for conversion of nitrates and sulfur which I'd think would be beyond many's abilities to fine tune that process as we don't have a method of testing carbon with home kits.

That's where my skepticism rises and very familiar with the original AquariPure design which relied on a drip to fully utilize denitrification and later it was discovered that carbon direct was quicker since flow no longer mattered. Don't recall exactly what he fed the bacteria but likely some form of carbon or might have been as simple as sugar. Been a while but what deterred me from his design was the restricted flow. No different the coil denitrators of the 80/90s. Needed several based on tank size.

I'll have to go refresh myself on Donovan's design but the biology seems logically to be the same since it's the same design with a new name. Kind of like all the scrubbers based off Adey's design yet don't mention him but perform the same biological function.

 

[Megaloptera]

250 gallon - GHA problem. I changed to Hanna checker for alk. Started dosing buffer with a dosing pump. Scrubbed the rocks off the with a brush every couple days to get the long stuff. Urchins maintained the small stuff. The increase in alk allowed for Coraline to take off.
I also was doing too much maintenance in one day. I was doing a water change, filter sock change and skimmer cleaning at the same time. Doing each on separate days keeps the low nutrients more stable instead of bottoming out. After 3 months the GHA
can only be found in the overflows and refugium.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

Two years no algae, no water changes, no mechanical filtration. Large assortment of snails and a couple of conch. Diamond goby, and foxface. Also have a blue eyed kole and a tomini tang. I do have an ats, skimmer, activated carbon reactor.

 

[Aluco]

I only have a 13.5gal, so tangs are a no-go for me. I couldn't get algae fully under control despite reduced feeding, improved flow, and vigilant husbandry, and all the usual recommendations, no matter how many snails I threw at it. I always avoided any kinds of crabs because people say they tend to go rogue eventually. What finally did the trick for me was adding (on top of the existing ceriths, astreas, etc) one tuxedo urchin and one pitho crab that I've been told will not go rogue. The two of them have been absolute machines and I can't find any evidence of algae at all. Since then I've upped my feeding, and also started giving a little nori to the pitho.

Yep I have a pitho and a Tuxedo I agree they've been great. But I also saw the fastest improvement after adding a bunch of hermits tbh. The bad thing is once the algae is gone they turn their attention to the snails..