Dirty everything issues

I had an algae problem a few weeks ago with thick algae due to old lights (i assume). Normally the algae would turn to "dust" when scraping and filter out. This algae was thick dark neon like and when I would scrape it the algae would come off the glass/rock in "sheets" instead of dissolving. Now it is broken down into fine particles but just laying on the sand bed and rock. I am currently going through and just using a turkey baster to clean the rock and also stir up the sand bed.... is this a good idea to just stir it up? Or should I remove the algae particles from the tank entirely. I did attempt to suck it up with the baster but there is so much that it is definitely going to take a long time to get it all. I just stirred half the sand bed and it is gone for now but I think it will return once everything settles... any ideas?

 

What you descibed sounds like cyano. You have too much nitrate and phosphate available in your tank. You will need to remedy that before you can defeat this problem. Your test may read 0 because the cyano is using up all of the available nutrients. Cut back on food, start using carbon and granulated ferric oxide in your filtration. A reactor works best for the media but a canister filter is quite effective. Siphon any of the cyano you find with water changes. Turkey baste your rocks to remove any detritus so GHA can not get going.

 

Thank you for the info... that makes sense. I used to keep a nitrate bag in my canister but removed it because it was old when I changed all my canister media. I put in all new carbon bags (mistake?) and started my sump/fuge. I only have three fish and my skimmer is producing a lot of dark skimmate. I guess I don't have a strong enough beneficial bacteria base now due to changing everything in the canister?