Help: Few spots of cyano developing

[Angryminer_07]

5 months in to my reef journey but I recently noticed 2 spots of cyano developing in my tank. A lower flow area of my DT and in my sump on some marine pure. I’ve tried the lights out, suctioning, and recently started to increase the flow in these areas but it alsways returns like it never left.

My parms are such: 34ppm salinity, ph 8.1-8.3, temp 78, ca 400, alk 8.0, mg 1325, nitrate 8-10 ( Red Sea kit) and phos 0.00 (Hanna low range).

I was running gfo and carbon to deal with a hair algae outbreak which fixed it completely but nearly killed my chaeto. I assume due to too much phos removal and also is why the nitrate/phos ratio is off. My reactor seal broke today so it’s off line currently and for the foreseeable future.

I believe overfeeding is my main issue so I’m working on it as well as dosing some NO3 x PO4 to lower my nitrates some.

What else would you seasoned folks suggest, any thing to add, anything to change or see where I’m going wrong? I’ve read using commercial things to kill the cyano isn’t very helpful as it will return if you don’t fix the underlying issue. If I fix my nitrates, will this and increased flow fix my cyano?

 

[NS Mike D]

fwiw, cyano is ever present, and while it most often will mat up with high nutrients (or low to no NO3 with PO4 present) no one knows for sure what causes it to come out of the water column and mat up.

I am not a fan of 0.0 PO4 and think zeros favor nuisance algae and bacteria more than corals.

NoPox is a form of carbon dosing, it's supposed to lower NO3 and PO4 together so if your PO4 is zero, so let's see how things work out with the reactor broken and no take down of PO4 by the GFO. I suspect if you let the PO4 rise a little you'll see the NO3 drop a little (as the zooxanthellae use both up during photosynthesis). And IMO, keeping the corals happy is the best way to keep cyano at bay.