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View Full Version : Cyanobacteria: how to fix it.


Sk8r
03/30/2013, 05:03 PM
Happens every spring. The sun moves in the sky through the year, and light hits a window it hasn't hit all winter long.
Cyano turns up. It lives on 3 things: carbon, water, and light. Any other thing---oh, it COULD use it, but take it away, and it'll use something else, so nitrate, phosphate, nutrients are all fairly irrelevant to treating this stuff. More flow won't solve it. I've had it turn up in tanks where the FISH had trouble swimming and the sand wouldn't stay put. Nope. It's an archaea, a real old thing from before the dinosaurs. It's part of every green plant on earth, so there's no dodging it. It's in your tank. Always. Just now and again it gets the spectrum of light it loves, and if you want to know where that beam is hitting your tank, try the spot where it first showed up.

What's it look like? A blush or red or brown (depending on your lights) on your sand. It gets thicker and starts producing bubbles. THose are oxygen, actually, and are harmless. It can get a quarter-inch thick and start blanketing everything in the tank. You're embarrassed to have visitors.

It is, however, not a crisis. Nothing under that blanket is really harmed. And it's easy to fix.

This is why I say everybody really should have a skimmer. If you don't, use a turkey baster as a suction device and remove as much as you can before you start this. Otherwise....

Turn out your lights. Wrap your tank in newspaper on the side facing any windows at all. Your fish will sleep through this. But they'll wake to be fed, so you can if you want, or otherwise they'll just doze, as they do through hurricanes and storms on the ocean.

Leave your lights out for 3 whole days. And have your skimmer running well. Empty it as needed. On the 4th, if you have strong coral-type lighting, use the blue actinics or twilight lighting only. Otherwise, back to normal. For coral-folk, on the 5th, bring everything back to normal.

It'll be improved. But it may not be the last you see of this pest this season. But if it recurs, bear with it for a while. Next month, same date, do the same thing. Typically, for a bad case, do this 3 months running and you should be rid of it for a while. Try not to let window-light reach your tank.

Do NOT use any red slime remover until you have a very mature tank or really know what you're doing, and even so---it may cost you your microlife, like pods, which can be hugely expensive to replace for a starving dragonet. This method works, costs nothing, and is far, far, far safer.

Saltwater_Biker
04/01/2013, 06:56 PM
Happens every spring. The sun moves in the sky through the year, and light hits a window it hasn't hit all winter long.
Cyano turns up. It lives on 3 things: carbon, water, and light. Any other thing---oh, it COULD use it, but take it away, and it'll use something else, so nitrate, phosphate, nutrients are all fairly irrelevant to treating this stuff. More flow won't solve it. I've had it turn up in tanks where the FISH had trouble swimming and the sand wouldn't stay put. Nope. It's an archaea, a real old thing from before the dinosaurs. It's part of every green plant on earth, so there's no dodging it. It's in your tank. Always. Just now and again it gets the spectrum of light it loves, and if you want to know where that beam is hitting your tank, try the spot where it first showed up.

What's it look like? A blush or red or brown (depending on your lights) on your sand. It gets thicker and starts producing bubbles. THose are oxygen, actually, and are harmless. It can get a quarter-inch thick and start blanketing everything in the tank. You're embarrassed to have visitors.

It is, however, not a crisis. Nothing under that blanket is really harmed. And it's easy to fix.

This is why I say everybody really should have a skimmer. If you don't, use a turkey baster as a suction device and remove as much as you can before you start this. Otherwise....

Turn out your lights. Wrap your tank in newspaper on the side facing any windows at all. Your fish will sleep through this. But they'll wake to be fed, so you can if you want, or otherwise they'll just doze, as they do through hurricanes and storms on the ocean.

Leave your lights out for 3 whole days. And have your skimmer running well. Empty it as needed. On the 4th, if you have strong coral-type lighting, use the blue actinics or twilight lighting only. Otherwise, back to normal. For coral-folk, on the 5th, bring everything back to normal.

It'll be improved. But it may not be the last you see of this pest this season. But if it recurs, bear with it for a while. Next month, same date, do the same thing. Typically, for a bad case, do this 3 months running and you should be rid of it for a while. Try not to let window-light reach your tank.

Do NOT use any red slime remover until you have a very mature tank or really know what you're doing, and even so---it may cost you your microlife, like pods, which can be hugely expensive to replace for a starving dragonet. This method works, costs nothing, and is far, far, far safer.

I have a cyano problem now and I cut down on feedings to once a day instead of 3 times. I have the BRS 5 stage filters for almost a year and it still reads 0 tds, but I test output water with having alittle phosphate with the API test.
At the moment I an going to do what you suggested and I am waiting for my GFO reactor. Any brand do you recommend for GFO that I can buy locally?

Sk8r
04/01/2013, 09:33 PM
I use PHosban. THere's also Phosgard. Granulated ferrous oxide is pretty well granulated ferrous oxide, so whichever you can find.

mykol reef
04/03/2013, 06:28 AM
check the phosphate level.

ryeguyy84
04/03/2013, 02:42 PM
I have it in my 4G pico tank and it's not going anywhere. I've had the lights out since monday.

From Sk8r: any light reaching the tank? And do you have a skimmer of any kind? It takes a skimmer to really make this work. You might try dipping out water, shaking it to make it froth, skimming the froth and putting the water back. But in very small tanks without much skimmer, this can be a problem. You might try a series of strong water changes while doing the darkness bit.

pjb9166
04/06/2013, 07:03 PM
Hi everyone....

If you don't mind I have a question about Cyano.
I purchased a Staghorn frag, well when I got it home and conditioned it and placed it on its new home. I noticed that on one of the tips there is polyps that have died off and in its place there is a touch of Cyano.
How do I take care of that?

29gal Hex
HOB marineland Penguin with Bio wheel only Chemi Pure in it.
SeaClone HOB 100 skimmer
120w LED fixture
RO water used


SK8R: the two problems are unrelated. Cyano was/is already in your tank, so don't worry about it. It's everywhere, and it' doesn't hurt corals except by depriving them of light. The way to deal with a bad spot on a coral is to nip off that bit including a complete bit of live, good tissue, the same way you amputate a limb by cutting it off above the problem. Then just treat it nicely and cross your fingers. It'll take a while to recover from the trauma. Mount it solidly and keep your water perfect.

Temp 78, 20 lbs sand bed, 16 lbs live rock.
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate @ 0, Ph 8.2, KH 12, Phos 0, Cal 360

5 hermit crabs, one A. snail, Cleaner shrimp.

1 Frag Stag
1 Frag Green Hammer
1 Frag Zoanthid
1 small rock with 5 mushrooms on it

Thanks
Paul

greyreef
04/09/2013, 03:07 PM
Sk8er, what if you have a smaller tank that doesnt have a skimmer?
Any recipe you would follow?
Is a small algae scrubber a reasonable alternative?

Sk8r
04/09/2013, 03:20 PM
The best thing to do would be see if you can make a temporary one: it consists of a pump sucking water from the tank and jetting it hard, through air, down into a reservoir of water and making it froth: you scoop off the froth, which is the skimmate. Alternatively, you could take jars of your water and shake them violently, then skim off the froth. This could get exhausting, but it would work. If you could devise a container that would do the water-jet thing, let the foam rise in an inner column, and not leak as it returns clean water to the tank, you'd have a skimmer.


A skimmer is basically the 'surf' of your tank, which removes amino acids from your water and makes your water nicer. Without the skimmer, I'm not sure the lights-out treatment is going to help much, because everything you kill off just dissolves into the water, endlessly.

If you're going to have this problem with a nano, you might take a look at the AquaC Remora, a HOB skimmer you can put on for a while, then remove, dry out and store against future need.

Failing all the above, you might try just the lights-out followed by 3 20% water changes a day apart and see if that helps.

tundra1000
04/13/2013, 10:59 AM
Sk8r,

I am running a small fuge with some chaeto. There is a small amount of cyano in the fuge. I just started lights out for the display but should I also do it for the fuge? Will this harm the chaeto?

-Matt

Sk8r
04/14/2013, 12:39 PM
No. The light loss would hurt it more. Just skim. Eventually you'll get whatever it's uptaken to grow.

rjdv420
04/15/2013, 02:54 AM
when i had cyano i used a product call chemiclean ! it erradicated the ciano !

From Sk8r. You were really very, very lucky. It can also crash a tank that's on minimal equipment. It is a gram-positive antibiotic. Your sandbed is (mostly) gram-negative, which is how this product avoids killing off your sandbed and live rock. But it does damage the tank ecosystem, and your tank may take months to recover. That treatment and lights-out do exactly the same thing: they kill the cyano. The effectiveness of the antibiotic is absolute, and your tank's survival depends on a) how much biomass there was and b) how effective your skimmer is to get that instant die-off out fast. The effect of the lights-out treatment is less drastic, and kills off the cyano at a slower rate, which a weak skimmer or successive water changes can deal with safely. Your ecosystem also remains intact, and can better handle the increased bioload.

My advice to novices is don't use this until you're an expert: otherwise luck and the factors above are a real dice roll.

SantaMonica
04/19/2013, 09:54 PM
An interesting note: The "cyano does not like flow" comes from the situation where food particles settle on the sand and provide carbon to the cyano. Flow, of course, moves the particles away so they can be eaten instead.

hogfanreefer
04/26/2013, 02:59 PM
I'm guessing this is cyano? In my QT.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f164/huntindoc/cyano_zpse6fc62e1.jpg

SantaMonica
04/26/2013, 07:02 PM
I think it's just regular periphyton.

Palytoxin718
05/01/2013, 08:58 AM
I have a pretty bad cyano outbreak. I will try your suggestions. Could it also be flow related? Can kalkwasser dosing help??

Pluedke1
05/06/2013, 09:57 AM
I had cyano bad in my frag tank for the first couple months. I added chemiclean a few times and the cyano would only stay away for a few days. I recently added a bigger return to the tank and there is no cyno. good luck

jacob.morgan78
05/09/2013, 08:30 AM
I have a mature tank and I get cyano from time to time. It shows up in patches and mostly in awkward places such as crevices where live rock meets the sand bed. When I notice it, I siphon it out the best I can during a water change or into a filter sock and I'm sure to vacuum the sand bed. It shows up more often during the end of my t5 lights life-span.

Just thought I'd share.

Mikie_P
05/10/2013, 07:43 AM
I have just done 3 days lights out and although it killed off most cyano, there were still patches on the sand and rock so changed the direction of my wavemakers to increase flow over the sand (so much its exposed eggcrate and the bottom of my tank and my sand is now in 3 huge piles) and within 24hrs of returning to normal lights the cyano is starting to take over everything again.... is it too soon to do another lights out? I have mainly softies, polyps and a few lps, bought some green star polyps last week that still haven't opened so don't want to kill them off by another 3 days in the dark too soon...

SaltWater226
05/10/2013, 07:46 AM
more flow and Dr G's phosphate and silicate remover took care of mine

Mikie_P
05/10/2013, 07:52 AM
my phos is pretty much undetectable so dont thinks its a water chem issue

SaltWater226
05/10/2013, 07:54 AM
it wont detect how much you really have till u get rid of it.

SaltWater226
05/10/2013, 07:55 AM
trust me i had a big problem of it and took care of it how I told you.

ricwilli
05/11/2013, 05:23 PM
I would like to try the "three days lights out" method to rid of the cyano that I have in my dt. My fish get feed pellets twice a day via a automatic feeder. I will be covering the whole tank with a huge black plastic bag (I have a 300g tank). Should I remove the automatic feeder while the tank is covered?

Chupakabra-King
05/14/2013, 07:32 AM
I had a bad cyano outbreak and everything I tried just didnt work. Even water changes wouldn't work :headwally: I decided to test for everything I had a test kit for and found out my magnesium was very very low. I also had a terrible time keeping the PH up. It would dip down to 7.8 and I couldnt keep it raised above 8.0. No matter what I did , the PH would come back down to 7.8. I went and bought some liquid magnesium and followed the directions and slowly raised the magnesium levels to around 1300 , my PH came back up to 8.4, DKH also came back to 9 and most importantly , the cyano started receding ! Now it's all but gone. I have a little bit left but its receding also. I always had it in my sump but its all gone down there too. I hope this helps somebody conquer thier cyano problem. I was about to give up and break the tank down until I ran all the water tests. I had suspected that the mag was low but I thought it was not related to my cyano outbreak.

aquanooby
05/18/2013, 07:26 PM
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s521/lewelew/rc3_zps0ab688fb.jpg (http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/lewelew/media/rc3_zps0ab688fb.jpg.html)
Pardon the poor picture is this cyano ? or red turf.ive been battling gha and am getting a grip on it then this shows up, trials and tribulations of a noob

aquanooby
05/18/2013, 07:40 PM
here is a full tank shot kinda hard to tell difference between the purple coraline and algaehttp://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s521/lewelew/rc5_zps82c2aebc.jpg (http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/lewelew/media/rc5_zps82c2aebc.jpg.html)

REEFtards
05/23/2013, 01:36 PM
For 20 bucks can't beat chemical clean

Typlus5
05/24/2013, 06:24 PM
Not sure of my success but the cyano disappearance started as I began dosing kalk. Alk and pH may have done it.

josegarcia89
05/25/2013, 12:13 AM
Hi guys I had a bad cyano outbreak not long ago. This is what I took away from my experience.
First you need to change the light bulbs.( do it every 8 months so that they don't produce any red spectrum, cyano loves that. Second skimmer not doing its job( making sure that its clean, the collection cup should have a nasty, fishy smelling like ice tea water.
The skimmer should be rated for 2 times the size of the tank.
Get some snails, do partial water changes of 20 %( once a week).
Get something that moves the sand( sand lifters starfish, diamond back gobby, etc)
NO Overfiding, reduce lights to 8 to 9 hours.
If you do what you should cyano will be gone, not completely it always stays in the tank but will not be visible.
No more cyano. Now Ick.

75 gallons Caribbean reef with several fishes and invertebrates.

TimeConsumer
05/25/2013, 12:24 AM
do partial water changes of 20 %( once a week).


20% a week?!?! What is this, a freshwater planted discus tank?

20-30% a month is plenty sufficient for tanks that have skimmers or any other method of nutrient export. Don't get me wrong, you can never change too much water, but that is just downright expensive on most people's tanks. On my 75g alone that would be over $300/year in salt. If I had a 180g it would be $750/year. No thanks.

aquanooby
05/25/2013, 07:49 PM
Hi guys thanks for the advice.
Skimmer finally broke in it is producing a very yummy cup full of goodness lol it is an octopus bh100 hob. My tank is a 36 gallon bow front.
I run a Fluval canister with nothing in it until now, I just added Phosban and Purigen to it.
I bought a full line of test kits and am now dosing the tank Im doing a higher than normal magnesium dose.
I am changing the water for the time being 30%
lastly I got a sand sifting goby his name is dozer he's a great worker.
I am happy to say in even just the last week the gha has diminished 30% and the cyano about 50%.
I am so addicted to this hobby it is sickening.
I had a great couple weeks at work and ended the pay period with quite a sizable sale , I'm an Hvac technician So I believe I see my self getting a new tank with overflow and sump refugium next week :)

skeeter_usaf
05/29/2013, 09:16 AM
Your hooked now. :)

MLalex
05/31/2013, 10:21 AM
and... UV remove ciano???

duganderson
06/03/2013, 08:19 PM
Last night I treated my 28 g. nano mixed reef with ChemiClean. I DON'T have a skimmer but do have a small upflow algae scrubber. I had quite a bit of cyno that has been continuing to get worse for months despite 0.02 phosphate (Hanna) and 0.2 nitrate (salifert) or lower. I tried to suck as much out before the treatment but there was for sure still some in there.

Is there anything else I can do post treatment that would help in addition to the 20% water change at the end of day two (Carbon Rox, Phosban, additional water changes, siphoning up any remaining or dead cyno, etc.) OR is my upflow algae scrubber likely to be enough????

Hminor00
06/04/2013, 06:52 PM
as suggested by some others that gave me info make sure you have good flow, the one rock that it seemed to grow on now gets a good flow of water and its keeping it from growing on top of me adding that special blend of stinky stuff that stunk up my house for 2 days. both working together and i see very little cyno at all and hopefully it will be almost all gone in another couple days.

My question is when we clean the skimmer cup should we wash the dirty stuff off or leave the build up on the cup when we pour out the liquid.

Saltwater_Biker
06/04/2013, 08:54 PM
wash it off

zaitmi
06/14/2013, 01:16 AM
Last night I took out the 90% sand from my 20 gallon in a tumbler then i washed my sand 10 times with fresh water, but still water is slight yellow, so i will wash it again tonight. I also replaced my live rocks fresh water which was bleached a day before and i will replace it again and again till the bleach smell goes off.

G2theRam
06/19/2013, 01:44 AM
Thanks

ahmer1781
07/03/2013, 12:26 PM
I tried the 3 days no lights, worked like a charm! tank looks like cyano was never there in the first place! thanks!

sergscar
07/04/2013, 09:30 PM
Hi, good night.
Have tried the 3 days without any lighting, but the cyano didn't dissapeared 100%, just reduced to half.
Will try in a couple of weeks again, since I don't want to put in risk any of my corals.
Thanks.

wbrinker
07/08/2013, 10:47 AM
Are there any other side effects from no lights for 3 days?

cbass488
07/12/2013, 11:53 AM
Is this cyano? The reddish coloring makes me leap to that conclusion, however I'm still very very new. It's got long 'strings' that move around in the flow.

wbrinker
07/14/2013, 10:53 AM
Yes it is!

Hbohi
07/18/2013, 02:17 PM
is there any slugs or snails or anything thing that will eat the cynobacteria?

immokalee98
07/19/2013, 08:54 AM
when I used GFO and biopellets, my nitrates and phospates were nonexistent. However, I recently removed the biopellets (they smelled horrible!) and just went with the GFO and I'm seeing a small cyano problem. Direct sun can't get to my tank in the basement and I run LED's. I do feed quite a bit though. I have some more biobellets on order and hopefully I can get my tank cleared again.

I also run a uv sterilizer. for some reason I thought this was supposed to help with that.

zaitmi
07/22/2013, 05:01 AM
How about small doses of erythromycin for 5 days? i have read succes stories with them.

SCLEO1
07/24/2013, 08:45 AM
Im pretty sure Ive started a cycle of the cyano as well but I have a 14 day old tank. Think I should just let it cycle on through? I have nothing live in the tank, just the Araga-Alive sand and Base Rock. I posted in another section with tank info and pics here (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2316046).

moe458
07/26/2013, 08:30 AM
is there any slugs or snails or anything thing that will eat the cynobacteria?

Naa they don't eat that...could be due to light spectrum...

ninja66999
08/07/2013, 01:59 PM
have you tried an upflow algae skimmer? thats what i use and my tank is right in front of a window and no algae in the tank!

Griznock
08/11/2013, 07:03 PM
my tank is aprox 60 days old now and im seeing cyno on the sand bed. i vacumed several times ..my mg was high so i did a water change and the cyno keeps coming back on my sand bed.

i also have what i assume is a diatom bloom going on.i have minimal flow on the substrate due to dusters and delicate stuff that would get blown away with added current.i never had a cycle period per-say due to the rock being cured already.

i have a kole tang,psudeochromus (spelling) 2 perc clown for fish.a small assortment of snails and bluelegs a serpent star thats aprox 18 inches across..hes huge

i also have some assorted soft corals,hammer,kenya trees,mushrooms,candycane pulsing zena,star polyps and a bubble tip

75 gallon drilled overflow
t5 lights,2 months old
skimmer rated 110 gallon tank
10 gallon sump
10 gallon fuge full of micro alge and pods

1400mg
470ca
9.8kh
phosphate=undetectable
nitrate=undetectable
nitrite=undetectable

now im not sure whats causing the cyno,no sunlight hitting the tank.
my question is if i do the lights out process for 3 days is there a chance of hurting any of my livestock?

the cyno is not real bad but i dont want it to get out of hand.

EpicVegas
08/11/2013, 10:21 PM
Good info guys

Sonicboom
08/13/2013, 12:55 PM
FWIW; I have a 180 which i started cycling in March of this year with NO lights, added sandbed a few weeks into the cycle still with NO lights, added some dryrock and did some of my aquascaping during the cycle still with NO lights. In June I added 1 AI hydra LED fixture over the center of the tank, since it is a new tank with no corals it didn't really need to be lit completely. In the mean time I found some old fluorescent 18" fixtures and went to PETCO and picked up a 10k 18" daylight bulb to use in the meantime until i order my other LED's.
Directly below the cheap fluorescent on one small rock is a cyano outbreak, directly below the AI Hydras is beautiful clean white sand and rocks. On Sunday i switched the fluorescent to the opposite side to see if it dies on one side and starts growing on the other.

cbass488
08/19/2013, 04:19 PM
I followed this method this past weekend. The tank looks good, the corals are all out and happy again, however, I have not seen my yellow watchman goby or my royal gramma since I've had the lights back on. Been on for about 8 hours now. My other fish all seem back to normal, the banggai, the ocelaris and the 6 line are all back to business as usual. Is it common for some fish to stay hidden for so long after keeping the lights out for a few days?

Sonicboom
08/19/2013, 06:24 PM
Royal gramma will sleep in rock, but will come out for food, if not I would check your overflows

cbass488
08/20/2013, 09:50 AM
24 hours later, I still haven't seen either fish :(

Sonicboom
08/20/2013, 10:00 AM
check your overflows and or filter socks?

bluemonkey
08/23/2013, 12:17 AM
I'm gonna have to try lights out for a day or two. I saw it pop up in my fuge before and it would go away by turning that light off for a day or two. I had an outbreak in my display, I've add phosguard and a bag of purigen in a reactor. Its going away but I've been hesitant to do lights out since I have several new frags.

Silvergryphon
08/24/2013, 09:56 PM
Coral RX! I mounted some frags today on a piece of rubble that had a patch of cyano on it. After soaking in the Coral RX, a quick RODI water dip, and back into the tank the cyano quickly went from dark red/maroon to a bright red-orange and disintegrated.

HumbleFish
08/30/2013, 12:11 PM
I've been battling cyano (mainly on the sand) for over a year now in my 150 gal mixed reef. And in that time I've tried everything: lights out, all new bulbs, replaced everything in my RODI to get the TDS back down to 0, increased flow, cut my feedings down to nothing, sucked all the cyano out. I tried Chemiclean a few times and that didn't even put a dent in it. But I know it's cyano because it's not there when my lights first come on and gradually gets worse once they do. And it actually now looks like my cyano problem is getting worse!!!

So basically, I'm now ready to start experimenting with unorthodox treatments. One thing that has always been in the back of my mind is cranking the mag up to over 1500. Has anyone ever done this with any success? My mag stays at around 1350; but in my old tank (which this tank was upgraded from) it was always over 1500 because of the salt I used. I never had any cyano problems in the old tank. So I'm wondering if there might be a correlation. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Deanda
08/30/2013, 05:05 PM
I did two days lights out removed my chemipure elite threw it away, and on the last day I siphoned out the Cyanobacteria brushed my rocks and skimmed wet. Third day turned lights back on havnt seen it since. I learned of this procedure from RC, after many weeks of failing to get it to stop popping up.

cbass488
09/07/2013, 09:13 AM
After trying this lights out with no success and losing 2 fish in the process, a local reefer suggested I try researching sugar dosing. He suggested that excess nutrients are more likely to blame than sunlight. I've dosed twice, and now my skimmer is working at a much much better efficiency and the battle is slowly turning in my favour.

It's also good to note, that this cyano battle is very common with new tanks, and with new tanks, light isn't the major cause.

Sonicboom
09/07/2013, 10:52 AM
Would the die off of cyano cause some kind of spike? Maybe a large ph swing? If so with out a water change in the process that might kill sensitive fish.

Sydoriakp
09/10/2013, 11:17 PM
yup my red slime is ugly but I got it down to only on the back glass and on one rock still keeping nitrates at bay and have new 20k radium mh lite in display ive heard that actinics that have been unchanges for a bit more than 6 months loose spectrum and that's what the ugly cyano waits for so keep bulbs fresh ......unlike me :(

maxter
09/24/2013, 10:10 PM
hope never get this :/ ........

ExtremeTang
10/03/2013, 11:08 AM
I turned off my lights for three days and all cyano disappeared.

Allentown
10/03/2013, 07:48 PM
It seems like Cyano is the mysterous magical thing that comes from all problems.

For me it was a bad RO/DI unit. I tested it and the water had 44ppm in it. Yikes.... The more water changes i did, the worse it got (and now you see why).

What didnt work.
1) Kiling the lights (didnt work)
2) Reducing feedings (didnt work). It would take a hit, never fully go away then come back with a vengence when i turned the lights back on.
3) Getting rid of a cannister filter (didnt help)
4) Adding circulation directly at the area of slime (didnt work, in fact the cyano was growing DIRECTLY on the buisness end of my powerheads for Petes sake!)
5) Increased skimming (didnt work)

It was flat out....bad top off water with a bad RO/DI unit.

One thing that seemd to help "migitgate it": It was some mystery resin by Hagan/fluval that had a brown tint to it like GFO but of which NO ONE on the internet appeard to really know what it was (it was some kind of resin that inclued gfo). I cant remember the name of it. What ever it was, it caused one of my tangs to start having that HLLE look (while everything else in my tank looked great).

SantaMonica
10/04/2013, 10:00 AM
upflow algae skimmer

I think you mean "scrubber" :)

im not sure whats causing the cyno

It's always nutrients. Either from food particles setting on the sand/rocks (which extra flow would help), or from pee/urea in the water (which flow won't help), or like was said, from bad rodi. That's one of many reasons I don't do water changes.

JonV88
10/05/2013, 07:20 PM
I got cyano in my 2 month 30 gal tank I siphoned out the visible cyano and lights out for 48 hours and fixed my problem then I got it again a week later that's when I noticed where sunlight was hitting my tank siphoned 25 % water out to be able to lift and relocate my tank 2 days ago redid my process lights on today no cyano so far

HumbleFish
10/05/2013, 07:59 PM
...or like was said, from bad rodi. That's one of many reasons I don't do water changes.

I don't get this. You'd still have to use RODI for top-off.

DavidinGA
10/05/2013, 08:04 PM
I don't get this. You'd still have to use RODI for top-off.

I also don't do water changes on my 210gal; nutrients come from your salt mix not clean ro/di top off.

SantaMonica
10/06/2013, 12:09 PM
Yes but top offs are minimal amounts, especially now with no-heat LEDs.

TheAquatect
10/23/2013, 10:30 AM
Thanks to Sk8r and everyone, I have a much better understanding on cyano.

I've battled/learned to embrace my cyano outbreaks. Mine go from green to red depending on the time of year as the tank gets some indirect sun exposure during the summer and fall. I usually leave it be or knock it off with a toothbrush during tank maintenance. I find it cycles on its own too as it consumes the carbon sources. Reminds me of a very slow robo vac! :)

Recently I made an observation which is leading me to a new theory/approach. I noticed that the cyano does not grow where I've placed coral so I am now trying to cover every square inch of my tank in coral:fun4:

ATLL765
10/28/2013, 03:31 PM
I'm battling a bit(I mean my whole fuge is coated in it) of cyano in the sump. It's everywhere on the glass, on the rocks, on the macro algae I have down there.

I have no skimmer because I figured with a tank this small, it wouldn't be the best use of funds. My issue has been mitigated by the fact that the cyano hasn't made it to the DT, either because there's not enough light(14W t8 50/50) or I'm lucky?

I figured after reading this I'd try to siphon, scrape and go lights out. Well, it's not as easy as it looks when you're trying to siphon uphill. Would it be a better idea to try to scrape it all off the rocks and glass in the fuge(while return pump is OFF) then just try to siphon out most of the water in the fuge? It's only like 2 gallons at most.

Otherwise my next thought is to scrap and try to painstakingly siphon off the bits as they fall away from the glass.

Someone also recommended to me that I get stronger lighting for the fuge. I thought this was an odd suggestion. I have an 11W CFL in a reflector, similar to the one seen on melevsreef, just smaller. Why would it help to add MORE light?

Sonicboom
10/28/2013, 08:04 PM
I'm battling a bit(I mean my whole fuge is coated in it) of cyano in the sump. It's everywhere on the glass, on the rocks, on the macro algae I have down there.

I have no skimmer because I figured with a tank this small, it wouldn't be the best use of funds. My issue has been mitigated by the fact that the cyano hasn't made it to the DT, either because there's not enough light(14W t8 50/50) or I'm lucky?

I figured after reading this I'd try to siphon, scrape and go lights out. Well, it's not as easy as it looks when you're trying to siphon uphill. Would it be a better idea to try to scrape it all off the rocks and glass in the fuge(while return pump is OFF) then just try to siphon out most of the water in the fuge? It's only like 2 gallons at most.

Otherwise my next thought is to scrap and try to painstakingly siphon off the bits as they fall away from the glass.

Someone also recommended to me that I get stronger lighting for the fuge. I thought this was an odd suggestion. I have an 11W CFL in a reflector, similar to the one seen on melevsreef, just smaller. Why would it help to add MORE light?

you could turn off the pumps and use a turkey baster to siphon the bits as they float by, then top off with a fresh mix. I noticed some tiny blotches (1" patches) of red slime on a few spots in my 180. checked my RO and i guess my DI resin was shot as i was at 7 ppm which in Florida equals 1 gpd top off for the last few months. replaced my resin and put in a new batch of GFO and GAC and blasted the patches off the rocks. will see if it returns.

Allentown
10/28/2013, 09:41 PM
For me, making sure I don't get algae is an equal priority as just keeping fish alive. I make sure my Ro/di water is 0ppm. Good skimmer, frequent filter sock replacements, I run carbon, geo, frequent water changes (and vacuum the substrate each time), the old school "tons of live rock/rock wall look", high circulation, clean out the sump once a week. If I have to, I'll run biopellets and if that I still get algae I'll put a refugium on my dry area under my stand. I'll do what ever it takes. Anti-algae = job one.

Sonicboom
10/28/2013, 09:54 PM
For me, making sure I don't get algae is an equal priority as just keeping fish alive. I make sure my Ro/di water is 0ppm. Good skimmer, frequent filter sock replacements, I run carbon, geo, frequent water changes (and vacuum the substrate each time), the old school "tons of live rock/rock wall look", high circulation, clean out the sump once a week. If I have to, I'll run biopellets and if that I still get algae I'll put a refugium on my dry area under my stand. I'll do what ever it takes. Anti-algae = job one.

+1
I clean my skimmer cup weekly and change socks weekly. During water changes I vacuum the sump area. I slacked on the di resin this time because I thought it was color changing and it wasn't. It won't happen again since the new stuff is color changing.

ATLL765
10/29/2013, 10:18 AM
you could turn off the pumps and use a turkey baster to siphon the bits as they float by, then top off with a fresh mix. I noticed some tiny blotches (1" patches) of red slime on a few spots in my 180. checked my RO and i guess my DI resin was shot as i was at 7 ppm which in Florida equals 1 gpd top off for the last few months. replaced my resin and put in a new batch of GFO and GAC and blasted the patches off the rocks. will see if it returns.

I tried that, I'd literally be doing that for like 12 hours if that's how I had to do it. I don't have spots, my fuge is about 7x8x8 and it's COVERED in cyano. This is why I thought maybe I should just kill the pump, scrape it off, it'll all collect in the fuge's water and then I'll siphon 90% of that out and hope for the best.

My DI resin was also shot, but I hadn't seen the TDS meter read higher than 2ppm and that was only right at the beginning, it would drop back to 1ppm after a couple mins of operation. Replaced all the filters though and did about a 15-20% water change with the new 0ppm water.

Allentown
10/29/2013, 10:27 AM
Maybe pull the whole sump out and nuke it? I guess that would be the advantage of having a small simple bare bottom sump in that you could pull the whole thing, hose it out and put it back in less than an hour

Sonicboom
10/29/2013, 01:12 PM
True, I do that with my 10 gallon qt. Fill a brute, mix in some bleach and vinegar and dump the while thing in after a session.

ATLL765
10/29/2013, 01:35 PM
Maybe pull the whole sump out and nuke it? I guess that would be the advantage of having a small simple bare bottom sump in that you could pull the whole thing, hose it out and put it back in less than an hour

The fuge area has sand, although I've been debating whether or not to remove all the sand. I'm starting to think it's more hassle than it's worth.

I'm thinking I'm just gonna try to scrape it all off the glass, drain the fuge as much as possible, then remove the cyano on the sand, take the rocks and macro algae out, try to brush it off those and hope that works. Maybe I'll try another 72 hour black out after I do that to discourage it from coming back immediately.

Allentown
10/29/2013, 01:38 PM
I didn't go with sand for just this reason. I do have a dry side on one end and one of my future tricks to fight biolad will be to drop a 2nd 10 gallon tank in there with a dsb, some 6500k lighting and macro and run it on a bridge loop to my sump. The idea here being I can add or remove such a set up at will without even touching my main sump.

tonyda1st
10/31/2013, 08:42 PM
Has anyone had any luck with anything other than the lights out? About 3 months ago i had a case of cyno bacteria and bought a liquid recommended by some idiot at the store and it worked for the cyno bacteia but it also bleached out all my hard corals about 700 dollars worth. Also killed my mushrooms had about 150 mushrooms have about 20 left

Sonicboom
11/01/2013, 07:44 AM
So it's been 3 days since i blew the red algae off my rocks with a turkey baster to start with a "clean slate", So far none of the rocks have any noticeable cyano on them, there was a tiny patch on the sand yesterday but it is not there today or is too faint to notice. Here are a few things i changed;

1. Stop the auto feeder to eliminate flake feeding at noon. now only feeding morning and night.
2. replaced DI resin now producing 0 PPM water for top-off.
3. added bag of GAC
4. replaced GFO
5. switched dosing Reef Energy daily to twice a week
6. trimmed chaeto and ran lights for 24 hours, then switched back to reverse daylight.
7. If i can't see through skimmer neck it get's cleaned.

SantaMonica
11/01/2013, 09:06 PM
1. Stop the auto feeder to eliminate flake feeding at noon. now only feeding morning and night.
2. replaced DI resin now producing 0 PPM water for top-off.
3. added bag of GAC
4. replaced GFO
5. switched dosing Reef Energy daily to twice a week
6. trimmed chaeto and ran lights for 24 hours, then switched back to reverse daylight.
7. If i can't see through skimmer neck it get's cleaned.

These of course are just increasing your export, in relation to your import. That's all filtration really is :)

Sonicboom
11/01/2013, 09:41 PM
yup, and step 1 and 2 decreased most of my import.

maymond
11/09/2013, 07:06 PM
So I have a little outbreak on my sandbed in the same exact spots on each side of my tank. I believe its from lack of flow. Also I had a ph spike. The 3 day lights out method. How do the coral act to it? will they be ok?

Sonicboom
11/09/2013, 07:11 PM
Corals use light to grow. No lights, no growth. I am seeing small patches as well but it seems like red dust. As if it is struggling to grow. I am experimenting and reduced my red and green output from my LET'S from 35% to 15%.

Oiva
11/13/2013, 05:28 PM
Not sure if this has been suggested, but this worked for me, two times.

I have been unfortunate to have cyano in two of my tanks. RSM 130 and now my 140 Gallon. I used to siphon it out but at one point it got way out of hand. It covered almost every rock in my tank, only spots that were clean had hair algae or corals. Everything els was covered.

My water quality was spot on except my Phosphate. I threw in some Seachem Phosguard in my reactor, and after a couple of day's it was gone. I did the same thing on my RSM but i never taught about it before i did it on my 140g tank. I had a lot of algae in my RSM so i used the phosguard to get the phosphate down.

rejected
12/19/2013, 03:34 PM
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/s521/lewelew/rc3_zps0ab688fb.jpg (http://s1304.photobucket.com/user/lewelew/media/rc3_zps0ab688fb.jpg.html)
Pardon the poor picture is this cyano ? or red turf.ive been battling gha and am getting a grip on it then this shows up, trials and tribulations of a noob

Did you resolve your issue? If so, what worked for you? Mine looks identical.

immokalee98
12/19/2013, 06:30 PM
I just got rid of it in my tank. I used the chemiclean. I have a 180 and followed the instructions. It was all cleared up in about a week. I haven't had any issues since.

BassandReef
12/29/2013, 11:46 AM
Chemi clean. It works!

living_waters
01/04/2014, 09:01 PM
So I did the blackout with newspaper and everything it barely did anything is there any other purple algea the looks like cyano cause the one in my tank is strange its covering all my rock with a light coat making the rock look dirty week later its coming back and with a vengeance I have zero phosphate from last time a checked I really want this stuff gone can you guys please give me some advice for a gfo like what they do and what brands you recommend also I run chemipure elite carbon is this releated to the outbreak also the cyano started in my fuge and traveled up to my display does this mean time to change fuge bulb the bulb has only been there say 4 months tops??

SantaMonica
01/04/2014, 10:08 PM
How much are you feeding each day?

What are your current exports?

living_waters
01/04/2014, 10:42 PM
i feed any where from once to 3 time a day depending how busy i am my export is 5g water changes a nano aqua c remora skimmer and macro trimming

living_waters
01/04/2014, 10:42 PM
5gs a week by the way

living_waters
01/05/2014, 03:18 AM
will a algae scruber work for cyano?

SantaMonica
01/05/2014, 12:10 PM
i feed any where from once to 3 time a day

Yes but how much?

Your macro trimming is the only real export you have. The 5g water change is only a 15% reduction once a week, which is almost none. and the skimmer does not remove any urea, ammonia, nitrate or phosphate at all.

So, how much macro are you trimming?

Sonicboom
01/05/2014, 12:46 PM
Here is my chaeto export for the month or so, a 5 gallon bucket up to about the 4 gallon mark. Took a handful of that and threw it in my qt to seed it with copepods. I also changed my feeding from flake which went everywhere to pellets soaked in also bit of ro/Di and selcon.

http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv145/maldonj1/Tank%20Build/20140105_132945.jpg

SantaMonica
01/05/2014, 02:50 PM
That is a nice bit of chaeto. You should squeeze all the water out and weigh it, and get the growth of grams/day.

Sonicboom
01/05/2014, 03:02 PM
I don't have a scale small enough to read it but I trim it down to softball size and it gets back to that size in about 2 months

living_waters
01/05/2014, 03:33 PM
Keep in mind I believe that's from a 180 to 36 comparison I trim prob a baseball size once a month and I feed preaty decently but I feed them slowly so its not put to waste will a alge scruber help with cyano?

living_waters
01/05/2014, 03:36 PM
I never feed flakes If I do its the new era ones and its very rare I feed pellets garlic soaked mysis live brine repeat in a few ours and always make nori available

SantaMonica
01/05/2014, 06:11 PM
Well, filtering is proportional to photosynthesis. The strong the photosynthesis, the more nutrients are pulled out of the water, quicker. Photosynthesis requires light, and flow of an air/water interface, and attachment so the algae can hold still under high turbulence.

Chaeto is a weak filter, because the top side shades the bottom, and, because it can't hold itself still during high turbulence. If the going gets tough, chaeto will not be able to compete, even though it grows. In your case, the cyano has strong enough photosynthesis that it can win.

So yes, if you build a scrubber properly, it will have stronger photosynthesis than the chaeto, and will remove more of the cyano than the chaeto is.

Of course, pointing a powerhead at the sand helps too.

IridescentLily
01/12/2014, 07:20 PM
That's Cyano Aquanooby.

Sk8tr the original post is a super post. It's instructional but not overwhelming, and it works ;-)

living_waters
01/13/2014, 09:42 AM
YES! I win the cyano is defeated!��

JonV88
01/13/2014, 11:21 AM
Newbie question I kno flakes add phosphate to tank what bout rinsed frozen brine mysis and veg

Trock577
01/13/2014, 06:23 PM
I bought a tiger conch snail and it ate all of my
Cyano

Biogenetic40379
01/13/2014, 08:34 PM
i had a cyano problem for awhile, I had to upgrade pumps, change gfo, and clean my sand bed really good (old pump had lots of dead spots)

MSreefdoc
01/14/2014, 03:42 PM
I want someone who knows about the Chemiclean product to tell me why exactly I shouldn't use it. I used it after about 3 months of being set up, and the the red cyano went away like magic! For at least a year it was gone. When it came back again I used it and again it worked beautifully. Is there something that I could be doing to my tank that happened to your tank or at least someone you know's tank with this product? My fish and coral seem just fine, but I am thinking about trying out a few sps frags in the coming months. Anyone?

IridescentLily
01/18/2014, 07:41 PM
YES! I win the cyano is defeated!��

Awesome. Did you do the steps laid out here by Sk8tr?

IridescentLily
01/18/2014, 07:44 PM
I want someone who knows about the Chemiclean product to tell me why exactly I shouldn't use it. I used it after about 3 months of being set up, and the the red cyano went away like magic! For at least a year it was gone. When it came back again I used it and again it worked beautifully. Is there something that I could be doing to my tank that happened to your tank or at least someone you know's tank with this product? My fish and coral seem just fine, but I am thinking about trying out a few sps frags in the coming months. Anyone?
BlueCorn and i have used chemiclean twice. Like you, i've inly had to use it twice in the last few years, but when i did use it-it did the job. We've had success with it. Aside from our manual removal, bulb changes, siphoning.

CReyes350
02/01/2014, 02:04 PM
I battled the stuff for about six months with no avail… I tried all kinds of stuff! Increased flow, changed lights, manual removal, changed R.O. filters, under fed, four day blackouts, large water changes… the whole enchilada… NOTHING seemed to work… I had previously bought some Chemiclean, but I was too afraid to use it since I had read the horror stories and have WAY too much money tied up in corals, clams, and fish.
Finally one stormy night after exhausting all my avenues to deal with this stuff I dropped in a large bubble maker, left my skimmer on without the collection cup, and I added the Chemiclean…
The next morning all the birds were chirping and the sun came up… My tank was fine. The cyano was gone after 48 hours and I did a 35% water change.
Chemiclean gets a bad rap but it worked for me. This is not to say that we should neglect general husbandry procedures, but I don’t think that using Chemiclean to reset your tank is necessarily a bad thing.

johnk183
02/12/2014, 12:39 PM
Looks like cyano, if you get it to come off the rock does it come off in sheets? More flow in that area. If a large problem follow the lights out for a few days (list above on this thread). Please note that after a couple days some of the corals may not look 100%. They will be fine in a couple of days of normal light. Good flow, a good skimmer and GFO or phosguard. Normal water changes are important.

JacobB89
02/17/2014, 03:26 PM
im going to try the light thing on my bio-cube i added more flow via another power head and it has helped a lot but still small patches of cyano around i remove what i can with a turkey baster and during water changes.

Elysia
02/26/2014, 04:24 PM
Cyanobacteria is a photosynthetic bacteria. Chemi-clean is a product that kills bacteria. But bacteria is the bedrock of the filtration systems in our tanks.
There are many different kinds of bacteria, as Sk8tr mentioned; some antibiotics kill only gram negative or gram positive bacteria, while others kill both. I personally do not know if cyanobacteria is of only one type, and if so, which type it may be. I do know, however, that it is bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate, and thus it is bacteria that is essential to keeping things alive in aquaria. That is why I think it is unwise to use Chemi-clean, or any antibiotic, in a tank in an attempt to kill cyanobacteria.
Bacteria are everywhere, and indiscriminate killing of them can have unintended consequences.

danil
02/26/2014, 06:42 PM
I agree with Elysia and Sk8tr that you have to try natural method(s) first but I also reserve open slot for ChemiClean as a final solution. I had to use it on my last tank and it was a great success. I believe there is a threshold than crossed you had to use it since biological disbalance went far in cyano favor. There are very little left from rival beneficial bacterias in the system and the only viable option is nuke it with CC giving time to other strains to multiply. As it said above this will work only for mature system with all parameters being under control and withing recommended ranges. That means if your Nitrate is 50ppm and phosphate 5ppm... nothing will help you.

msderganc
07/31/2014, 03:42 PM
Cyanobacteria is a photosynthetic bacteria. Chemi-clean is a product that kills bacteria. But bacteria is the bedrock of the filtration systems in our tanks.
There are many different kinds of bacteria, as Sk8tr mentioned; some antibiotics kill only gram negative or gram positive bacteria, while others kill both. I personally do not know if cyanobacteria is of only one type, and if so, which type it may be. I do know, however, that it is bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite and then to nitrate, and thus it is bacteria that is essential to keeping things alive in aquaria. That is why I think it is unwise to use Chemi-clean, or any antibiotic, in a tank in an attempt to kill cyanobacteria.
Bacteria are everywhere, and indiscriminate killing of them can have unintended consequences.

It's debated whether Chemiclean is actually an antibiotic. Boyd's claims it's an oxidizer, not erythromycin, which does not affect the beneficial bacteria.

droog
08/01/2014, 01:33 AM
@Sk8r (OP)

My 120g has a mild case of Cyano outbreak - some golden brown dusting and bubbles. Not as bad as some I've seen here, but still quite ugly.

I have a "guy" that visits the tank once a week to do a thorough clean & maintenance. It seems that he disturbs my shallow sand bed each week such that the brown stuff gets mixed into the sandbed (which then looks a little cleaner afterward). Is this a bad practice and should I get him to stop doing that?

Given that its already done, will a three day blackout still help me?

Thanks for any advice!

-droog

input80
08/13/2014, 11:50 AM
subscribing :)

Dan_P
10/16/2014, 07:12 AM
when i had cyano i used a product call chemiclean ! it erradicated the ciano !

From Sk8r. You were really very, very lucky. It can also crash a tank that's on minimal equipment. It is a gram-positive antibiotic. Your sandbed is (mostly) gram-negative, which is how this product avoids killing off your sandbed and live rock. But it does damage the tank ecosystem, and your tank may take months to recover. That treatment and lights-out do exactly the same thing: they kill the cyano. The effectiveness of the antibiotic is absolute, and your tank's survival depends on a) how much biomass there was and b) how effective your skimmer is to get that instant die-off out fast. The effect of the lights-out treatment is less drastic, and kills off the cyano at a slower rate, which a weak skimmer or successive water changes can deal with safely. Your ecosystem also remains intact, and can better handle the increased bioload.

My advice to novices is don't use this until you're an expert: otherwise luck and the factors above are a real dice roll.

The lights out approach is a very interesting technique that works for many aquarists, but it probably does not kill cyanobacteria. The bacteria are still present in small colonies but for some reason the big mats or red film break up. These mats or films seem to aid in the persistence of the cyanobacteria bloom but I have not found any hard data to support this conjecture.

msderganc
10/16/2014, 12:17 PM
The lights out approach is a very interesting technique that works for many aquarists, but it probably does not kill cyanobacteria. The bacteria are still present in small colonies but for some reason the big mats or red film break up. These mats or films seem to aid in the persistence of the cyanobacteria bloom but I have not found any hard data to support this conjecture.

I think the lights out method allows beneficial bacteria a better chance at competing with cyano since cyano is photosynthetic. So, while it doesn't kill cyano, it helps everything else out compete it.

kissman
04/01/2015, 04:36 PM
Corals use light to grow. No lights, no growth. I am seeing small patches as well but it seems like red dust. As if it is struggling to grow. I am experimenting and reduced my red and green output from my LET'S from 35% to 15%.

Sonicboom....How did this work out for you?

Sonicboom
04/01/2015, 05:46 PM
Sonicboom....How did this work out for you?

I ended up breaking down and going with chemi clean red slime remover, it was almost not worth it with the trouble you get with your skimmer but I learned and just raised the skimmer a few inches. I will say it works and I do not have a single trace of red slime it algae anywhere.

kissman
04/01/2015, 06:24 PM
I used it years ago before i tore my tank down and redid it. Did a big water change 30%. I also lowered the whites on my LED's which has reds and greens in it down to 15% so hopefully that will help

Sonicboom
04/01/2015, 06:35 PM
Yes, during the treatment I left lights out for about 48 hours.

kissman
04/01/2015, 07:38 PM
I read somewhere that Cyano releases nutrients back in to the water column when it dies of at night the consumes it again during the day when lights are on. Is this true? If so sounds like it makes sense to do water change at night to remove nutrients?

Triggerfish
05/09/2015, 07:44 PM
I recently have some in 3 locations. 2 changes the tank had when I first started to get it.
1.started GFO- so my PO4 is now much lower than before with not cyano.
2. new halide bulbs.

when I first setup my algae scrubber 10 months ago I had it bad in the sump for a number of months. that has since vanished.

Salty Cracker
05/09/2015, 08:07 PM
I have to say... Chemi Pure Elite in my gfo reactor is amazing!!! No cayno, gha, pure white sand all the time. My corals have never looked better.

big g
11/19/2017, 06:17 PM
Happens every spring. The sun moves in the sky through the year, and light hits a window it hasn't hit all winter long.
Cyano turns up. It lives on 3 things: carbon, water, and light. Any other thing---oh, it COULD use it, but take it away, and it'll use something else, so nitrate, phosphate, nutrients are all fairly irrelevant to treating this stuff. More flow won't solve it. I've had it turn up in tanks where the FISH had trouble swimming and the sand wouldn't stay put. Nope. It's an archaea, a real old thing from before the dinosaurs. It's part of every green plant on earth, so there's no dodging it. It's in your tank. Always. Just now and again it gets the spectrum of light it loves, and if you want to know where that beam is hitting your tank, try the spot where it first showed up.

What's it look like? A blush or red or brown (depending on your lights) on your sand. It gets thicker and starts producing bubbles. THose are oxygen, actually, and are harmless. It can get a quarter-inch thick and start blanketing everything in the tank. You're embarrassed to have visitors.

It is, however, not a crisis. Nothing under that blanket is really harmed. And it's easy to fix.

This is why I say everybody really should have a skimmer. If you don't, use a turkey baster as a suction device and remove as much as you can before you start this. Otherwise....

Turn out your lights. Wrap your tank in newspaper on the side facing any windows at all. Your fish will sleep through this. But they'll wake to be fed, so you can if you want, or otherwise they'll just doze, as they do through hurricanes and storms on the ocean.

Leave your lights out for 3 whole days. And have your skimmer running well. Empty it as needed. On the 4th, if you have strong coral-type lighting, use the blue actinics or twilight lighting only. Otherwise, back to normal. For coral-folk, on the 5th, bring everything back to normal.

It'll be improved. But it may not be the last you see of this pest this season. But if it recurs, bear with it for a while. Next month, same date, do the same thing. Typically, for a bad case, do this 3 months running and you should be rid of it for a while. Try not to let window-light reach your tank.

Do NOT use any red slime remover until you have a very mature tank or really know what you're doing, and even so---it may cost you your microlife, like pods, which can be hugely expensive to replace for a starving dragonet. This method works, costs nothing, and is far, far, far safer.