Winning the Cyano battle....I hope

[EllisJuan]

For the past two weeks I have been battling algea on my sand bed. It seems to be in the areas that get the most light. I added more flow to the sandbed area and the helped bust also pushed my sand all over the place. Two days after I moved my powerhead back it returned. I would think 2 koralia 1400s would be plenty of flow for a 65g. Any suggestions?

Here is a pic...

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/TahoeDust/b88578aa.jpg


I repositioned a powerhead to add more flow across the sandbed. I am also going to cut back the feeding...I had been alternating frozen brine and mysis a cube a day. Does that sound to much

I also was told that I should be thawing and straining the frozen cubes. I had been just thawing them and apparently the preservatives they are frozen in contain nitrates.

I also changed my carbon and picked up some chemipure as well as adjusted my skimmer to scan a bit wetter.

There was noticably less todays later....two days after that it is almost completely gone.

[dirk_brijs]

i believe the trick is how to position the powerheads so they produce flow over the sandbed but not at it enough to blow away the sand.
this much easier accomplished with higher end powerheads is experience.
anyway its all easier said as done as i am facing exactly the same problems right now.
issue i have is that my anemones dont like me moving my powerheads around.

[mm949]

an old actinic bulb will also cause red slime in the sand.....does it seem to cycle with the lights...not to bad in morning but gets worse by the end of the day?

[EllisJuan]

an old actinic bulb will also cause red slime in the sand.....does it seem to cycle with the lights...not to bad in morning but gets worse by the end of the day?

Actually it did. But the bulbs are only 4 months old.

[skidrow52]

Use Brightwell's Microbacter 7, cut off feedings an more wet skimming, bulb changing if old and you will see cyano dying within a few days if Microbacter7, I'd been fighting myself and this trick worked didnt want to try chemical method like Chemi-Clean

[oceanslayer18]

+1 once i got my vortech i never had it again.

[skidrow52]

You are lucky then, i already have 2 MP40's

+1 once i got my vortech i never had it again.

[jimmy_beaner]

I mostly let it run its course. It eventually petered out. Also switching to LEDs seems to have helped a lot as well, though any time I have a bit of a phosphate spike (addition of dry base rock for instance), I'll get a bit of a bloom for a couple days and then it's just gone.