Multi tiered approach, all against mass of a target we want gone, perfect for this thread very nice to read that. Peroxide liquid, peroxide + baking soda paste, fire from a jet torch lighter, boiling water, magnesium pasting, all potential tools to take ground.
I like this approach you used where one does not sit back, they act, like making a fire line to stop a bigger fire~ it's hand-guiding of substrates first, animal and param guided secondarily, the goal is to plate coralline and coral mass to exclude algae, they're bio excluders like how fescue grows in nice n tight to exclude other less desirable plants.
Terrestrial gardeners use physical blocking by other plants commonly, and nobody presents an invasion tank with algae attached to the fleshy lobe of a plerogyra. No, algae attaches to the base, or an exposed septa in a regressing specimen it never attaches to the bright healthy round flesh.
Ergo, a ton of healthy plerogyra packed tightly on a hand-farmed and coralline-selected area of rock isn't going to misbehave if it's kept in a relatively clean, low detritus reef regardless of the cuc one uses.
I do not use a clean up crew, why outsource the job if total land taking is an option. Can't grow algae when the entire rock is a brain coral~larger tanks will find benefit in using a clean crew to prevent algae infestation, not to remove it.
People assume hand gardening never stops, it does when bio excluders take over, we work until then. I haven't had to mess with my rocks since 2009, it's glass that needs occasional cleaning (barest zone of excluders in the tank=where invaders go)
