Tank in trouble?

[benningtondt]

I moved my 75 gallon reef tank from my living room to my basement a couple of weeks ago and ever since then I have had trouble controlling cyano. I have a lite bioload with 4 fish. I have cut back there feedings to nori feed once or twice a day and mysis every other day. I have done many water changes with r/o water and still the cyano continues to spread. It is mostly gathering on the sand bed. There are also some spots where it has spread to the live rock. I've tried sucking up as much as i can from the sand while doing water changes, nothing ive tried seems to have worked. The water parameters have came back unmeasurable for nitrate and phosphate. Before I moved my tank I never even had cyano and now its really driving me crazy. Im also worried it will take over my gorgonian. Any ideas to help rid my tank of this plague would be great.

 

[Bifferwine]

Did you clean the sand before you set the tank back up? A lot of people get this problem when they move tanks. moving the sand and rock stirs up all sorts of gunk which fuels an algae bloom.

Try doing a blackout for 4 days or so. Keep the tank lights off except when you feed your fish. Continue to suck out any that you see during the blackout. And do a 20% water change or so when it's done. Give that a shot.

If you are at your wits end, you can try a product called ChemiClean. It says it's reef safe, but some people have reported deaths after using it. It usually works really well the first time, but becomes less effective the more you use it.

Also, does the cyano look stringy and snotty with bubbles in it? Or is it typical slime algae looking?

 

[wontonflip]

+1 biff....make sure you have plenty of saltwater ready for any emergency water changes and watch your params.

 

[benningtondt]

I did not clean the sand when i moved the tank, and the cyano is red, stringy, and snotty. there are some bubbles on some but not all of the cyano. I think i'll clean the sand and try a blackout for a few days. I'll also increase the weekly water change percentage.

 

[Bifferwine]

It sounds like dinoflagellates, not cyano. In either case, the blackout is your best bet for now.