Cyano advice

[Reef Altitude]

We went out of town about a month ago, and when we returned, i noticed that 2/3 of an ehim feeder hopper had dumped into the tank in a week (usually lasts around a month). I checked the nutrients and it was double normal (.15 phos and 15 nitrate). a few days after we got back, some cyano started on the sand.

I would not call this disaster level here, but its there and bothering some coral (not killing anything though).

i have changed out 5 gallons of water every day for the last 10 days (230 total system). I dont want parameters to go wacky so just taking it slow. A couple of time per week i siphon out the slimey film. I have acros in here and the flow is pretty high.

Thoughts on staying the course, keep changing water and siphoning and it will eventually go away, get some critters, other suggestions??

I had dinos for quite a while and they seem to be totally destroyed by the cyano so i guess there is that. Chemiclean is not something i want to do because of the recent dino issues.

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[Reef Altitude]

last ICP, all values corrected up to reef moonshiners recomended levels.

 

[Z Burn's Reefing]

What is the latest on this? Did you stay the course and keep up with the small water changes and siphoning? Having some cyano as well at the moment, don't really care to use chemiclean, so trying to learn what is working for others.

 

[jabberwock]

My experience is to stay the coarse. Vacuum the sand, the cyano "reorganizes". Do it again, and again. Took me a couple months to nudge the tank into equilibrium. You need a lot of mouths to feed, and some macro algae in order to feed the tank enough to keep it in balance.

 

[Macbalacano]

I’ve had cyano a few times and tried 'staying the course' but weeks went by and it was brutal. I finally caved and used chemiclean. Works well but cyano kept coming back after a couple of months. What seems to work well to keep it at bay for me was starting to use filter floss or filter sock (I wasn't using either) and microbacter7.

 

[Reef Altitude]

I have a roller and pretty large skimmer. Nutrient extract is pretty robust. I got my feeding back on track and drove the nutrients down. Took about 3 weeks but it went away with good elements and decent nutrients (less than. 2 phos, nothing crazy low). I did not siphon or mess around too much. Didn't do a water change either. Tank is 2 years old so might not work that way in a new set up.

**It was never crisis level coating corals.