Quite frankly. No. Why? Most of the time this algae exists because you've built an incomplete ecosystem, and it's doing the job of what something else should be doing. That said, nuking it just means you're starting over, killing everything. That's a little bit like working backwards in my book. Maybe there's some exceptions to the rule, but this should almost never be necessary in an established tank.
I'm all about proper algae ID and treating the problem with the right solution.
When fluconazole became a fad for treating bryopsis and derbesia, I was instead dealing with cladophora (turf algae), which I later confirmed with a microscope. There's numerous species of cladophora, as well as some other relatives like cladophoropsis. And all these things are highly resistant to fluconazole, not to say it doesn't work at all, but some species it's like trying to kill chaeto with fluco, as chaeto is yet ANOTHER relative of cladophora. That said, of all things, my solution was API Algaefix. And as much as people love to hate on API products, this is a legitimate algaecide with a warning on the label and everything. It's also known to work against dictyota and "ghost algae" which, I've never seen properly identified, but is possibly just another name for chrysophytes. And if you can't figure out what an algae is, then you need to ask around in various forums, do the research, put it under a scope, whatever it may be, and treat the problem with the correct solution.
Unfortunately, there's still some things I don't have a great answer for, like someone asked me about red turf algae. I didn't have a good answer for them other than urchins, which was working, but urchins love to be lazy and "farm" algae, leaving stuff behind for later.
That said, don't "nuke" your tank. Also, I'm very against peroxide as a general solution as well. Yes, it kills algae, it also kills your good bacteria. It kills everything. It's non-discriminate. To me, that's almost "nuking your tank" as well. Working backwards.
True story, my display tanks never have had bryopsis or caulerpa, but I've taken frags out of them, put them into my frag flat, only to have them grow it. Something must eat/control bryopsis and caulerpa in my display? Still trying to figure that one out. Of course, nothing eats the dang cladophora, but i've got an "algaefix" for that, haha!
I'm all about proper algae ID and treating the problem with the right solution.
When fluconazole became a fad for treating bryopsis and derbesia, I was instead dealing with cladophora (turf algae), which I later confirmed with a microscope. There's numerous species of cladophora, as well as some other relatives like cladophoropsis. And all these things are highly resistant to fluconazole, not to say it doesn't work at all, but some species it's like trying to kill chaeto with fluco, as chaeto is yet ANOTHER relative of cladophora. That said, of all things, my solution was API Algaefix. And as much as people love to hate on API products, this is a legitimate algaecide with a warning on the label and everything. It's also known to work against dictyota and "ghost algae" which, I've never seen properly identified, but is possibly just another name for chrysophytes. And if you can't figure out what an algae is, then you need to ask around in various forums, do the research, put it under a scope, whatever it may be, and treat the problem with the correct solution.
Unfortunately, there's still some things I don't have a great answer for, like someone asked me about red turf algae. I didn't have a good answer for them other than urchins, which was working, but urchins love to be lazy and "farm" algae, leaving stuff behind for later.
That said, don't "nuke" your tank. Also, I'm very against peroxide as a general solution as well. Yes, it kills algae, it also kills your good bacteria. It kills everything. It's non-discriminate. To me, that's almost "nuking your tank" as well. Working backwards.
True story, my display tanks never have had bryopsis or caulerpa, but I've taken frags out of them, put them into my frag flat, only to have them grow it. Something must eat/control bryopsis and caulerpa in my display? Still trying to figure that one out. Of course, nothing eats the dang cladophora, but i've got an "algaefix" for that, haha!