I have also heard that water changes can sometimes feed algae even if the water is "clean", i.e 0 on Nitrate and Phosphate, the theory being that there are other substances or minerals that come with the salt mix that are also feeding the algae. Not sure which substances or minerals these are supposed to be or if true but I have heard that before.
Actually I invented that idea about water changes fueling alga(sometimes) It is true that many people do not experience algae until they do a water change.
What frustrates me about this hobby is that there are so few definite answers and that so much of it seems to be pot luck, such as someone having a perfect tank for years, nothing changing and then suddenly getting explosions of algae... we need more proper scientific reasearch and analisys so we can properly understand what really drives these suddend changes. Still love it though!
Unfortunately if you are looking for scientific research here, you will not find it. This hobby is called ornamental fish keeping and being ornimental, there is no real money to be made researching it.
It ia a hobby and has as many variables as there are hobbiests.
Changing water can cause algae explosions depending on what was limiting the algae in the first place.
If there is absolutely no iron in your water, algae will not grow but if you add iron through a water change, it can grow. There also can be some nitrates and phosphates in your make up water.
The best way to remove algae causing chemicals, is, unfortunately, to grow algae.
Hair algae is very good at removing unwanted nutrients, of course we don't want the hair algae either but if we do not change water and let the HA remove the nutrients, it will die. When it dies we can remove it because if it rots in the water, the cycle will start again.
It is a shame but HA actually makes the water healthier. The best solution is to provide a place for the algae to grow where it has better growing conditions than your tank. I use a shallow trough right under my main reef lighting.
I know that you will hear all sorts of opinions on how to eliminate algae, thats because it disappears on it's own. Your couple of snails did not eat it as many people think.
The first thing people say is to change the water, read all the posts you can find and see if that ever worked.
As I said, it leaves on it's own as long as you reduce feeding and stop changing water. Unless of course youy have a dead animal in there or severly overfed, then you should change the water.
Confised?
This was my tank 15 or 20 years ago, see all the hair algae?
Notice how healthy the corals are?
This algae left on it's own like it always does. It happens every few years in cycles and it always will.
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