Does low or zero Nitrates promote cyanobacteria?

[Nick Barbier]

I have extremely low nitrate in my tank 2 ppm. Yet, I have red slime, cyanobacteria. My tank is a 125g mixed reef with a medium-heavy bioload (12 fish). I am skimming with a Reef Octopus 150sss. I am dosing Ocean's Blend 2 part solution and Red Sea NOPOX. What's the best way to eliminate cyanobacteria? My tank parameters are: Temp: 77, Sg: 1.026, Alk: 8.4, Ca: 500, NO3: 2 ppm, PO4: .01 ppm.

 

[Reefen]

I have extremely low nitrate in my tank 2 ppm. Yet, I have red slime, cyanobacteria. My tank is a 125g mixed reef with a medium-heavy bioload (12 fish). I am skimming with a Reef Octopus 150sss. I am dosing Ocean's Blend 2 part solution and Red Sea NOPOX. What's the best way to eliminate cyanobacteria? My tank parameters are: Temp: 77, Sg: 1.026, Alk: 8.4, Ca: 500, NO3: 2 ppm, PO4: .01 ppm.

I have been in the hobby for 20years never cared about nutrients never had cyano. just over the past year I have gotten my nutrients way low close to zero trying to get rid of algae and then i started to get cyano. I used chemi clean to get rid of the cyano, it worked. now I keep nutrients up, po4 .03ppm to .10ppm. no3 about 10ppm to 20ppm and no cyano

 

[Nick Barbier]

I have been in the hobby for 20years never cared about nutrients never had cyano. just over the past year I have gotten my nutrients way low close to zero trying to get rid of algae and then i started to get cyano. I used chemi clean to get rid of the cyano, it worked. now I keep nutrients up, po4 .03ppm to .10ppm. no3 about 10ppm to 20ppm and no cyano

I guess that I will need to try chemi clean.

 

[jccaclimber]

I’ve found giving sand a good deep cleaning helps, assuming you have nonzero nitrates.
Chemiclean does nicely as well.

 

[Nick Barbier]

I’ve found giving sand a good deep cleaning helps, assuming you have nonzero nitrates.
Chemiclean does nicely as well.

I used Chemi Clean and the majority of the Cyano disappeared in about three days. I had to unplug my skimmer though because it went crazy.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I used Chemi Clean and the majority of the Cyano disappeared in about three days. I had to unplug my skimmer though because it went crazy.

That's an antibiotic (erythromycin) that does kill cyano.