Cyanobacteria HELP!!

[HunterBryan]

Ok I have a 75 gallon and my parameters are all fine but I'm getting cyano everywhere. My refugium is lit only at night when my display tank goes off after 8 hours and it is covered in it and my display is starting to get it all over the sand bed and on some of the rocks. I have plenty of clean up crew and I only feed every other day and not that much of rods, pellets, and flakes. I have 7 fairly small fish. 2 maxi-jet 1200s, 1 maxi-jet 400, and a mag 9.5 return for flow. My only concern is my lights. I only have 1 t5 fixture with 2 giesemann bulbs (1 actinic and 1 aquablue plus). Do you think I'm getting my cyano from not having enough lights??

Please help cause I can't stand the look of red slime on my sand bed and rocks.

[auburnreefer110]

1 search there is so much info on cyano here. Cyano is a bacteria, so I don't think lighting has anything to do with it. You say parameters are all fine, what are they? Might need to change the direction of the powerheads. Do you have a sump? What is your filtration?

[hoooop54]

I went through a cyano phase 5 months ago. I did the 3 days of lights out on 3 separate occasions. The first two times helped a lot, but it came back. The last time worked. In between each time, I used a gravel vacuum and sucked out as much as I could. I waited about a month in between each lights out treatment. Good luck. It is a pain, but if you stick with it, it will pass.

[HunterBryan]

salinity-1.025
Nitrate-0
Phos-0
alk-7
mag-1350
cal-400

Yes, i have a sump with a reef octopus skimmer in first section, fug with lamp in middle, and mag 9.5 for return.

I have tried moving powerheads around.

I thought insufficient lighting was a reason for cyano?

[HunterBryan]

hooop54 do you have corals and did it hurt them? I have tons of LPS, a couple SPS, softies and 2 RBTA and don't won't to hurt them.

[shellz]

Only time I have gotten the dreaded red slime was when my parameters were off. I know you have cked them but ya might be getting false readings, the slime is feeding off of something. The lights are not the issue nor does turning them off help...at least for me that did not work. Are you running anything like rowaphos in a media chamber, charcoal and de-nitrate in the sump. U gotta fiddle with stuff like that cause the slime will cover ur corals quick which as u know will be a complete pain in the neck.

[shellz]

And yes You will have to siphon as much of it off daily. Water changes too....sucks I know

[thabizness]

Lights out periods will not hurt corals. The ocean doesn't receive 365 days of full blasting sun light.

[HunterBryan]

Not running any reactors but I put phosphate remover pellets in a mesh bag and carbon remover bag in my sump just in case. I've been battling this for over a month and its just in the corners of my tank and on my rocks. Im also getting algae on my rocks but its not red but more of a fuzzy looking algae. It's not hair or bubble algae but light brownish fuzzy algae. It's just a pain!

I've been doing 10% water changes weekly since its shown up and its appears that it's kinda staying put but not going away

[zachogden]

Are you using RODI water for changes or tap

[shellz]

I used de-nitrate in a bag threw it in my sump and no BS, after a a few days the algae I was batteling for months started to die off. It still took a little while to rid the tank if it, but once it started to die off it was easy to siphon it up. I would not have believed it if I did not witness this for myself!

[shellz]

I agree u gotta use R/O D/I water

[HunterBryan]

Yes I have a 5 stage Ro/di water system and I've changed filters and all haha. Ive been trying everything. I guess I'll just try and ride it out. I'll take some water samples to my LFS and have them look at it too just for a second testing.

[hoooop54]

I had a few LPS and Zoas at the time. They were fine. I have read numerous references that they can handle it. They seemed fine every time.

[HunterBryan]

would temp be an issue? I have a eheim jager 200w heater and since I've put it in 7 months ago my temp has been at 82F. I don't know if my heater is messed up or not but I've it set like at 78 and it won't go lower. I've tried even putting it at 74 just to see if it would go down and it just stays at 82.