My battle and triumph with cyano

[MY TOUCH OF THE OCEAN]

I have been a reefer for going on 15 years now. In the beginning i had a 90 gallon mixed reef with sump and skimmer the works. I should have succeeded but moved often and failed miserably. So i gave it a break for a few years. Once in my place i had sold all my equipment and had to start over. By now house payment 3 kids and not alot of salwater cashflow. I decided why not i will go sumples and skimmerles. (I still am today) i run one hob filter with media and powerheads. I rely on live rock in the tank. I let the tank cycle for a full 3 months with mollys. Full light cycle. 2 t5 fixtures 4 bulbes total. Mixed white light and blue added the purple later. At the time i was only running 20 times flow. I never syphoned the bottom sand. I added my first fish at 3 months. 2 clownfish a yellow tang six line wrass and a hawkfish. All did amazing. At 5 months after the fish feeding change bio filtration was balanced i added coral. Some softies and euphellia. Which all took amazing. At this point im thinking i did absolutely everything right. Im sure your all impressed right. Man so was i the tank was flourishing. Untill one day i moved a rock. No big deal right? Lets remember i never once syphoned the bottom. I heavily fed to get the bio load. And cyano starts in the sandbed. On top of that i forgot to change the t5 bullbs and the corals were expanded cutting flow. Yep red everywhere. Over the period of one week rocks covered. My first thought was change my filters on my r/o system so i did that. And did a heavy waterchange sucking as much out as i could. Did this for a few weeks every 3rd day with no results. So i did some research and wverybody has a different opinion and approach. So i did the chemiclean treatment. It took care of it for a week or 2 but then it woul come back always starting at the sand bed. Read another article that said change your lights t5 burn out after 5-6 months. So i did that. Well the cyano stopped growing on the rocks as much but still hanging around a bit in spots. Came across another article told me to increas flow. So i jumped from 20 to 35 times flow. Oh man after a week i was seeing results on the rocks. It was leaving my sight. But the sandbed. I have always been told dont syphon leave it dont do it. Well that was 15 years ago things have chaged i though. So i did more research came across another article that basically said cyano is natural and happens usually because we dont syphon the bed and it starts to build up over time then bleads out. In my case i moved a rock causing it to happen. So i started siphoning the bed. After 2 months battle i had done it. I beat cyano. In my case i have now upgraded to a led and dont have the light issue anymore. I run 35 times flow at all times and syphon the bottom of my tank every 2 weeks.
In a nutshell i belive cyano i cause by 3 key things and can be 100% avoided.
1. Keep good flow through your entire system always accounting for coral growth and expansion IMO 30-40 times has amazing results.
2. Keep your bulbs changed and make sure your running proper par. I have not had any problem since switching from white to blueand led. Maybe that makes a difference?
3. Keep your sandbed clean. If you have a clean up crew that handles it great. But they dont get it all we need to be the cleanup crew. Good housekeeping keep the bed as clean as your rocks!

Please let me know what your thoughts are. This is my first post so go easy lol.

 

[Neoalchemist]

Great post. Thanks.

 

[MY TOUCH OF THE OCEAN]

My tank today