Cyano on rocks and blue algea in sand HELP

[tang lover1961]

I have read that this is a bacteria not really algea. Will this harm my fish and corals? how did I get this? I have 3 PH with good flow 2x filtration, protien skimmer,in tank refugium have my lights on a timer 9hours. I feed once a day and rinse my food started using phos-zorb to lower phosphates. It is working well they are almost gone. what am I doing wrong?

 

[meowzer]

How often do you do water changes? you need to siphon it out with a turkey baster...as soon as you see some....and UP the water changes
 
what are your tests reading???

 

[tang lover1961]

Changing water once a week and cleaning sand and rock when I change the water next day or 2 its back on the sand. every thing is reading good 0 except for nitrate they are at 20 to 40 have been fight that for awhile they go down then back up. Phos was high but the phos-zorb has it down now.

 

[meowzer]

How large of a w/c are you doing?

 

[tang lover1961]

5 Gallons it's a 55 gallon tank should I do more?

 

[meowzer]

You might want to up it some....since you are having an issue.....do 20%.....and if possible do it 2x a week
 
I see you say you have 3 powerheads, BUT how are they arranged......is this cyano all over, or just certain spots....test your flow and see if you have dead spots
 
how is your cuc?

 

[tang lover1961]

It's every where not in spots. I tried moving the PH's all that did was make the corals mad. Cuc is 10 Tonga snails, 2 serpent stars, 6 hermit crabs, 5 turbo snails. I will up my water change and see if it helps but will that help if it's a bacteria as per what I read? Have to leave for awhile I'll be back later.

 

[meowzer]

Yeah...it will help, BUT we have to figure out the source

 

[tang lover1961]

The only thing different is I bought some new corals and I have new lights. I was wondering if it could be from the new bulbs maybe to much light. or I have them on to long. I was afraid to leave them off to much because of my corals. Is 9 hours to long? Also it the fixture is has only 1 switch for all the light day light and actinics.

 

[meowzer]

What kind of lights? Did you acclimate the tank to the lights?

 

[tang lover1961]

Know I didn't. I didn't Know I needed to since it had already had my lights from before on. The lights are T 5's.

 

[meowzer]

When you add more intense lighting....you should acclimate the tank to them
 
so now you have T5's....what did you have before....pcs?????

 

[tang lover1961]

yes

 

[meowzer]

How long have you had the new lights.....you might want to lessen the time they are on for now...and then slowly increase it after a little while
 

 

[tang lover1961]

About a month. what should I reduce it to?

 

[meowzer]

A month...and how long have you had the algae issue????

 

[tang lover1961]

On the live rock 2 months the sand a month.

 

[meowzer]

So you have had the algae issue before the lights then.....I would cut the time in half for now....BUT I am not convinced that is the issue....
 
Better yet, what corals do you have? Maybe you can just turn the lights out for a few days

 

[tang lover1961]

I have Frog Spawn, Hammer. Zoa's, Xenia's,Mushroom's, Kenya tree, small Ducan frag,a coral sold to me as a brain frag but I don't think it is and a Montipora cap. Also a Anenome.

 

[sloppyjoseph]

Ok I just battled the cyano myself. I would suck it out of the tank but sure enough two days later it would be back. So I went to the LFS and they helped me out. I put a media bag filled with phos-lok in my sump and added a rainford goby. Now im not sure which one helped the most, im assuming the phos-lok did, but my cyano problem went away really quick. So give that a try.