Cyano arrrgggghhhh!

Ok I want to hear what works or any ideas, the last couple months now my 24 gallon has been battling the ever lovely red slime. I have never in a decade had cyano before and now I can't get rid of it. It seems to have mostly left the rockwork after the last blackout I did but still all over the sand bed.

Things I have tried,

Adding flow
Added a hob filter w/ carbon
Large water changes
Changed salt mix
Several 3 day blackouts.

Lighting? old bulbs.

It's leds, panaroma strips

I have no tips other than what you have tried but how long have you had the LEDs? Those are new to you in that decade.

May I also say thank you for posting something GP and J&J, welcome!

Hmmm about a year? Not sure how long swanwillow ran them before that but leds are supposed to have quite a lifespan aren't they? Corals look great, this is taken today, since you can't see the sandbed it looks decent

yeah 5 yrs at least, poss 10.

Looks great!

Low Magnesium?

I don't have a kit for that, but have done several 8-10 gallon water changes with 2 different salt mixes and no real change. I may try another blackout as that worked well for it on the rocks. I think part of the problem is my piranha tank light shines on the sandbed, but it's never been an issue before.

Could be a bad batch of salt too? I had that happen with IO a couple yrs ago.

I was using reef crystals when it started, switched to kent, now switched to instant ocean and just did a 8 gallon change Sunday with it, I clean off the sandbed and within hours it's creeping back, covering it within 3-4 days.

I used to be the Queen of Algae, thick thick green carpets. I also problems with the Cyano on my 45, but not my 20. I have recently changed to Tropic Marin, and the Cyano in the 45 is definitely is lighter. I did the blackout too. That helped. Overfeeding affected it adversely too. The real cure is a pistol shrimp. He'll rearrage your sandbed completely. Nothing can grow when he's plowing. Keep trying. Lots of good help here.

I did throw my clownfish (my 2nd male jumped out, probably because the female constantly attacked him) in my 8 gallon so the tank is fishless now and not getting fed anything. Pistol shrimp not a bad idea actually, I wouldn't mine having one.

Just remember a busy shrimp can tunnel so much, your rockwork can fall down. Mine died, and I think I'll get another one. My rocks are foamed down. So not much moving, but I couldn't keep any corals on the sand.

I just added those macros as well, the caulerpa isn't staying but figured it might help for a little while. We shall see I guess.

I just have a really thin layer of sand, not sure if a shrimp would even be happy with that.

I was having cyano starting up in my tank, which is about a year and a half old. Every few days I siphoned out with a turkey baster all the visible cyano, and moved the substrate around to loosen up whatever was there. I switched from multiple feedings per day to one per day, which is what i think did it. The tank looks better now. I also changed the flow around a bit, but not dramatically. I also have LED lights.

I am trying out this messing up the sandbed daily idea, if nothing else it looks nicer to me.

Still battling. Changed out the filters in my ro/di unit.

Monthly update! The cyano is mostly gone, it's turned into some green algae instead so not exactly a win. Mostly on the sandbed plus have a bit of hair algae growing in the tank as well. I'm storing some equipment for someone so I swiped their remora skimmer and threw it on the side the other day to see if that helps. Been running carbon and a polyfilter in a hob but took it off to make room for the skimmer.

My sandbed looks gross.

I can't keep my eyes off that chalice long enough to notice the sand bed.   

James even brought up fragging it for the swap! Shocking as he never wants to frag his chalices. It looks so nice and isn't all that big though so I would rather leave it for now. I can't get that orange chalice below it to grow for anything, it's irritating me. My xenia is still alive so far, I have never had any luck with that stuff long term so we'll see.