New lights possibly causing cyano?

[lacyqueen]

I have a 55 gal. tank with a 48" Nova Extreme light fixture. It originally came with (2) 54 watt 10,000 K lights, (2) 54 watt actinics and 4 moonlights. One of the 10,000 K lights was broken when I received it so I ordered (2) 85 watt 10,000 K AquaSun lights to replace the 2 54 watt lights.
It seems that my cyano problem started when I changed them about 2 mos. ago. Have tried everything from cutting the lights back to only 4 hrs. a day, feeding fish and inverts every other day, added more flow, 10 % water change weekly with RO/DI water, Phosguard in HOB filter for a week, cleaning skimmer cup every other day and cleaning HOB filter and PHs often. Yesterday I tried physical removal and siphoning sand and I did a large water change (about 18 gals.).
60 lbs. ls
60 lbs. lr
Clean Up Crew:
6 Nassarius snails
13 Astrea snails
16 Margarita snails
5 Banded Trochus snails
2 Mexican Turbo snails
2 Zebra Turbo snails
15 Hermit crabs
2 Emerald crabs
1 Porcelain crab
Today after having the lights on for only a couple of hours, I could already see it coming back on the sand and rocks and brown algae already covering most of the glass.
Tonight's test results:
Temp. - 80
PH - 8.4
Amm. - 0
Nitrates - 0
Nitrites - 0
Phosphates - 0
I am at my witts end. "Do you think it is possible that the new lights could be causing the cyano?"

 

[seasalt101]

how much flow do you have in the display tank?

 

[bigblue69]

They most likely caused could be a lack of flow in the area were it is growing.Try moving your PH around see if this help. Also there have been some posters that have left their lights off for three days on their tank and this has helped with the cyano outbreak.

 

[farslayer]

I have an outbreak every couple of years or so it seems. Cyano is a bacteria; the fact you are getting brown algae tells me you've got silicate problems as well as it sounds like diatoms (maybe).
Anyway, if you are having a very serious cyano problem, you can resort to medicine. Cyano is a bacteria and can be treated with antibiotics. Chemi clean is a great product that I will use when I have an outbreak. But PLEASE follow the directions to the letter. Antibiotics can kill your beneficial bacteria if it is not used properly. You must also shut down your skimmer, activated carbon, UV sterilizer, and ozonator (sp?) if you have them. The cyano will be gone in 24 hours. 48 hours after treatment, you do a 20% water change. You can then perform another treatment if you see any more cyano.

 

[lacyqueen]

Originally Posted by seasalt101
how much flow do you have in the display tank?
I have 2 MJ 1200 PHs, one on the right side just above the sand and the other on the left side a little higher blowing along the rocks.
A HOB filter that came with the aquarium (not sure of gph)
Coralife SS65 Protein Skimmer.

 

[lacyqueen]

I really don't think it is a flow problem because I have tried positioning the PHs in different places with no different effects. The cyano is even growing in high flow areas.

 

[david24]

How much natural sun light do you have in the room the fish tank is in? To much natural light caused me cyano problems for months.