For those who don't do many water changes for your reef tank, what are some tips you can share to keep everything in check?

[RiverChad]

I have a 38aio sps dominate tank that I recently added a 5 gallon refugium that runs on an opposite light schedule as the display. Currently growing Cheato and have a uv sterilizer in there. I'm currently dosing 20ml all4reef, 5ml neonitro, and .5ml vodka daily to my system. I rarely do water changes, I might do a 5 gallon water change once a month.
It seems I have finally reached the sweet spot when I test my parameters. But my tank seems to be going through another ugly phase after achieving the parameters I want. Excess green algae that coats pretty much the entirety of the tank, some hair algae. Just overall not what I would picture a healthy aquarium to look like. As for the corals and fish they all seem to be doing fine besides a couple of acros that seem to be turning a little pale, my other acros seem to be doing just fine and showing good growth. I would like for someone who does minimal water changes to share their secrets to success. parameters, everything you dose, and tips that you may have to keep your system going strong. Thanks! Will post pictures and parameters if requested but mainly want to hear feedback on y'all's systems.

 

[Quietman]

I didn't stop water changes for a couple years. After the break-in, then the uglies, then GHA, then dinos, then GHA again. Parameters became very stable and very predictable, no new fish or corals for a long time and everything looked good. I used an ATS (GHA will remove more than just nitrates and phosphates - some heavy metals as well) and removed my skimmer. Also used All-For-Reef. The ICP testing showed nothing of concern. Never had nitrate or major phosphate issue.

I also have a low demand soft coral tank. I barely add All-For-Reef just a couple mils daily. When it got out of whack and popped a 5.6 dkh (dose pump issue), everything still looked just fine and dandy. It's a very, very forgiving setup.

I'm not sure I'd do the same with SPS or at least I'd test more than 1x a year. Even now I wonder if I shouldn't start WC again but after a few years it would probably shock everything.

 

[VintageReefer]

I use an algae turf scrubber and just dose alk dail, and I manually correct calcium, magnesium, manganese as needed. I add trace through cheatgro and reef fusion.

I keep a mixed reef, lots of Goni, sps, lots of coral overall

Haven’t done a water change in years

 

[Tahoe61]

Can you add to your CUC to address the algae issues?