Cyano problem

[RacingTiger03]

I recently swapped over to a 55gallon tank, and after about a month I am having a pretty heavy cyano outbreak. It is mostly on the left half roughly of the tank which I see as a bit odd, that side is currently only seeing a maxijet 1200 and my corrallife protein skimmer for direct flow, and any other flow it gets are from the K2 and HOB tetra55 filter (which I use as half refugium and half for carbon and something called clearmax by fluval, should I swap that to some phos-ban?)

The tank stats...
KH - 12
calc - 460
ph - 8.2
temp - 80 consistently
nitrates - 0
phosphates - 0.5

I have a new korallia evolution 1050 on the way to replace the maxijet that will be here wednesday, other than that what can I do to fight this bout of cyano?

 

[RUGDOG]

water changes. water changes. phos ban maybe to lower phospates oh and did i mention water changes.I also think personally that a cooler tank doesnt keep cyano as much as a warmer tank. fwiw imho do consistent regular water changes.

 

[RacingTiger03]

i came from a 29 gallon tank, so a waterchange every saturday is not just a habit.. but engraved in my soul now lol. How much water should I be changing each weekend with a 55gallon? The total water volume in the tank is around 40gallons, and I have been doing 5 gallon changes so far. Apparently that hasn't been enough, so what does everyone recommend on that?

Also, anyone know why it seems only half of my tank is affected? That side is exposed to heavier lighting as Im currently running a 36" 4 T5HO that covers most of it, and a 48" 4x65 watt pc over the entire tank. The side that only sees the PC seems to be fine.

 

[boehm742]

I have a 55g with 20L sump. I do ~10g water change a week. I would keep the water changes up and get the new korallia in there once it gets in it should help.

 

[RacingTiger03]

alright. I cut the temp down 1 click, so it should run about 79 now. I really don't want to get below that, as once I do the temp fluxes a lot more from day to night. Took up as much of the cyano as I could and stirred things up a bit. So we'll see how that does before the new powerhead comes in. I think thats going to be the key right now though, that and upping the CUC.

How many CUC members should I have?
currently im at 20 hermits, 11 snails, 2 shrimp(Coral banded and peppermint),and 1 serpent star

 

[randomfish]

did you try cutting your light period down a bit and running a power head on the effected area

 

[boehm742]

Ive got 2 Turbos, 10 blue/red legs, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 brittle, and like 3 sand sifting snails.

 

[RacingTiger03]

did you try cutting your light period down a bit and running a power head on the effected area

the powerhead is aimed indirectly at the area (to the front glass and flowing at the area from there. Ive cut down the daylights by 2 hours, but still have the actinics on for that time. Should I reduce the entire photoperiod by 2 hours instead? Or as I've read some other places, just leave them off for a couple days. (Though I don't think my acro would like that much...)

 

[randomfish]

yes i would reduce everything and give the affected area a little direct flow to stir the cyano up

 

[shapermike]

check you ro water or topoff water tds readings the water you are using should be 0 tds and get your phos down lower if you can. I had the same problem and it was because of my ro water and it was @ tds .01 after the di unit, and direct flow will only spead it to other parts of your tank, been there done that. I used a turkey baster and sucked it up from the area that has it.