Experienced Reefer vs Cyano/Algae

[msn711]

I consider myself a somewhat experienced reefer. I started in the hobby back in '04 with tap water and a prism skimmer. I learned from my disaster, and over the last couple of years, my tanks thrived....no algae problems, growing soft/lps corals, great fish, I even dabbled a bit in sps. So in Aug/Sept of '07 I upgraded to a 120. I had finally finished law school, started working, and thought this would be my dream tank. The fish are still doing great, the corals are still growing, but...

I can't seem to beat this cyano! And now I seem to have feather caulerpa growing in the display! I'm at a complete loss, so I'm swallowing my pride and begging the good reefers of RC to help me figure this out. So far, I've tried:

reduced feeding
no lights for 3 days
cut back on lights
upgraded skimmer to Tunze 9010
increased circulation from ~3750 to 4990gph
siphoned out the cyano
lowered nitrates
even chemiclean (which btw, does nothing in my tank despite following the directions to the letter, and trying a second treatment)

The current readings:
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Phos .1 (time to change the phosban in the reactor)

I use RODI water with a TDS of 0ppm

Wednesday, I tried chemiclean for the second time, even though nothing happened the last time (just before the Christmas holidays). I still haven't seen the slightest reaction in my tank. I'm going to pull all the LR out tonight, scrub off the algae, blast the LR with a powerhead, siphon out any algae left in the DT on the sand, and in the process of all this, perform a massive water change.

I think the caulerpa snuck in on a coral frag and has just thrived in the tank. I figured I would move those rocks to the sump and stick a light over it and let it thrive somewhere where it might be useful.

I'm going to change the phosban in the reactor.

Other tank details are in my signature.

But if anyone has any other ideas, suggestions, tank criticisms, something....please let me know! Despite the last couple of years of having good looking tanks, I'm completely baffled by this outbreak. I know the tank is still young, but I haven't done anything differently with this tank vs previous tanks, and yet I can't seem to bea this. And I've had this problem for probably the last 3 months.

Thanks everyone

[TacoKing]

I have found one of the best ways to get rid of cyano is with Erythromycin. Cyano is a bacteria. Erythromycin is an antibiotic.

About a year ago I was fighting it. I had zero phosphates and wouldn't get rid of cyano for the life of me. Since I dosed the antibiotic everything has been great.

-Rob

[msn711]

And that doesn't destroy the good bacteria that filter our tanks?

[nauticac4]

What dose of chem clean did you use? Also what brand of salt are you using? I have a problem when I do water changes getting an outbreak of cyano, after this bucket of salt is gone I'm switching brands.

[stingythingy45]

Whoa,you used Chemi-clean and had no results?
I just dosed that New Years Night and did a big water change the other day and it worked wonders.
We had a guy in our local that had cyno that kept forming around one particular LR.He removed that rock and things went back to normal.
I guess one question I would ask is how old are your light bulbs?
Only ask because I didn't see that listed.
And from what I've read,the spectrum changes on old bulbs to promote algae growth.
And yes .1 on phosphates is pretty high.
I tested out at .07 at my last reefer meeting and had tufts of caulerpa growing here and there.That stuff is evil,uses it up out of the water ASAP.

[thor32766]

I have heard that also.

[impur]

I'm with you. I still can't beat my cyano problem. I've tried chemiclean 3 times in the last 3 months and it doesn't do a thing for me either. I even tried it while leaving my lights off for 3 days straight.

I'm either going to just keep up syphoning, cleaning, large WCs or i'm to the point of tearing down the tank and starting over.

[msn711]

Nauticac4: The chemi-clean instructions say 1 of their tiny spoonfuls for every 10g. I have a 120, so I used 12 of their spoonfuls. I've always used IO salt, probably started this latest bucket last month.

Stingything45: Yes. I know it seems odd, but absolutely nothing happened the first time. Except of course my skimmer went nuts when it was time to turn it back on. Nothing has happened this time either, and the 48 hours will be up later this evening.

I bought the lights when I set up the tank, so the bulbs are from Sept....4 months. They are current usa 10k bulbs. I wonder if changing to another brand would help. I'm seriously considering phoenix bulbs. Even though I have the t5s now, I've always liked the phoenix bulbs, and its what I used before buying this fixture.

Impur: I'm with you. I've seriously thought about turning it into a FOWLR. I just can't figure out what I've done differently from my previous tanks, or what starting over would accomplish. I'd dump the sand, but I'd be using the same live rock, and I really have no desire to sell off my current fish and corals.

[stingythingy45]

I did a 10 gallon water change Wednesday and plan to do another tonight.The skimmer is micro-bubbling so much it's irritating the leathers and sticking on the anenome.I think I have multiple plenums going on under my LR.lol
I replaced the carbon in the HOB filter.It took the whole 48 hrs. before I seen the stuff start to melt and disappear.I had a very light coating that kept dogging me from when I had to remove my LR to catch a fish.