HELP. Cyano or Algae? I am going nuts!

I quit the brightwells then this started getting bad a couple weeks ago. I feed pe mysis and rinse now, but in tap. ordering an ro/di until next week. I use ro/di in the tank though from my lfs. I do have 2 korillas that I just re-arranged to hit the substrate more. Seems like enough for a 55. I am now running a phosban reactor with gfo for the last week or so. But, due to the red slime remover I have to have my skimmer off, carbon out and gfo off as well....

 

IMO I would stop the slime remover...add carbon and fire up the skimmer
Is what could have happened is when you moved your PH's they stirred up some old nasties .
Run you lights a little less for a few days and RO/DI water for anything.....clean filters, rinse food etc

 

nitrate: 0
pho: it is a tuff call between the first two color options but looks like 0, just checked both these seconds ago.
yes ro/di in tank
i just picked up a euro reef skimmer, older version and it pulls about an inch of skimmate in a few days, not too thick but not see through watery either...

 

moved my PH?

 

Slime remover is a band aid. The problem will come back. You should test the water you are getting from the LFS, they rarely maintain their ro/di units as needed.

Skimmer, phos reactor, GFO. Trust me that is going to solve it just give it some more time.

 

Ditto....I would say you stirred up some crap with your Power heads.

give it time.....add some GC and leave the skimmer on. Your Kh and Ph are ok...up the calc too

 

Cool. GC?

Thanks for your help too. Any other suggestions would be great. it is starting to get on my corals.....

 

Use a turkey baster to blow it off the rocks and corals.When the water clears clean the mechanical filter.


Which koralias do you have?

 

GC= Granulated Charcoal

 

How much are you feeding your fish? It's been my experience with cyano, that overfeeding usually contributes to higher phosphates and also cyano. And as far as your nitrates reading 0 - this is just because the cyano is consuming the nitrates that are in the tank for sustenance, and then your tests would read 0.

Usually better flow, less feeding and cut back on the light cycle for a few days will help to get it under control. Then once it is under control, you can start working on the real problem - which is excess nutrients in the water. Chemiclean will only work for a quick fix. If you don't fix the underlying problem - the cyano will just come back.