I've got a big cyano outbreak and I don't know why. Help?

Magnesium levels are at around 1350.

pH is normal. I get no sun anywhere near my tank! lol I made sure of that.

So should I cut back feeding or shorten my light cycle or just let it run.

 

i guess it depends on which part of the country you live in. i have noticed that my PH has risen during the winter or what passes for winter down here.

 

This is neither sound advice nor suggestion, but experiences I have had with cyano...

Last time I had a cyano outbreak, it was really bad. The tank it was in had very, very fine sand which did not allow for vacuuming of the cyano "sheets." I went ahead and let it run its course. Soon enough the entire sand bed was covered by a large "sheet" of cyano and the way it was pitched up like tents in some areas made it look like the cyano WAS the sand bed. I decided to add carbon and GFO. Two days later I am sitting near my tank and see an abnormal amount of movement in my tank. Looking over, I see the entire "sheet" lifted off of the sand bed and quickly removed it from the tank. No more cyano! My belief is that the cyano used up all of the nutrients in the tank and had nothing to feed off of + with the addition of GFO they had no incoming source.

I have also used Chemiclean in mixed reef tanks in the past with excellent results. However, as it was mentioned, it was necessary to dose twice for those results. If you do go that route, ensure you follow the directions to the key. I also would not recommend going the chemical route until all other options have been weighed. If you have a high nutrient issue (which it sounds like you don't...it was only a skimmer/PH fault), it will come back after the treatment is finished.

 

Try to not use any chemicals unless it's been a couple weeks and you're losing. I had some die-off from inverts cause my skimmer was off (per directions) and low oxygen in the water.

Turn off lights for 2 days, siphon top layer of sand out, do a couple water changes and test water to see what your levels are.

 

I had the same problem a couple weeks ago after I came back from vacation. Got some emerald crabs (just 2) as another part of the CuC and the cyano is almost gone.

And I agree with the other... Chemicals only cover it up. Best to maybe add some diversity to the CuC or fix the flow or oxygen problem. It will most likely go away with time as long as you deal with those

 

UPDATE

The cyano is starting to look like its got a bunch of air bubbles under it and also some is floating away.

Is this good news?

 

I'm dealing with cyano now as well. I suck it out of the tank as soon as I see it, but keeps popping up in random spots.

 

Ha ha how do we both get cyano at the same time! Is it your first time too?

 

Yep, I think it was due to the small size of the cyclop-eeze. The fish pretty much left all of it alone. Leaving a lot of the food to decay. I cut my lighting back from 8 hours to 6.5 hours, fuge light is now on 24/7, cut down feedings, moonlights are now only on for 2 hours. I will be adding two nano korallias to the tank soon to add more flow. I also had my rock of xenia in the fuge which started to melt. I took that rock out and now it is in the frag tank for me to cut the shrooms off the rock.

I will be doing a 35 gallon WC this weekend after I rearrange part of my rockwork to allow for better flow.. I am hoping that will take care of my high nitrates (15ppm now when usually 5ppm).

 

What is your Phosphate/Nitrate? Those two can cause it to keep coming back after you manually remove it. Move a powerhead to blow on the problem areas and see if that helps out some.