Black Cyanobacteria issue

[Aveet]

My tank is been running for 3 months. I have been getting a mat of black cyanobacteria on the top of the sand bed in front of the tank. It is probably the highest flow area of the tank and I have LED lighting on for 10 hours.
I haven't tested for phosphates but I had somewhere around 10ppm nitrates (ammonia and nitrite were zero). I run a protein skimmer rated for a 150 gallon tank on my 50 gallon cube.
Could this be part of the saltwater "new tank syndrome"? or is it most likely related to high phosphates? I can post pics when I get home.

 

[AlSimmons]

Sounds normal to me.. Just remove what you can, keep your parameters in line and be patient. Eventually it should go away.

https://www.reefcleaners.org/nuisance-algae-id-guide

 

[Aveet]

Okay thanks for the reply. I'm coming from freshwater so I have only ever seen Blue-Green cyano before.

 

[ramseynb]

Do you have chloramines in your water system? You should be able to find out on your local water supply company's website or by calling them. If you have chloramines and you're not using a special filter on your RO/DI unit, that could certainly cause cyano outbreaks. I battled that stuff for a long time before I found out about chloramines in my local water supply.

 

[Aveet]

No I have an RO/DI 4 step system I use for water changes in my reef tank. I believe chloramines can be created when using conditioners in water with chlorine as well.

 

[ramseynb]

Yes, it's ammonia bonded with chlorine. A regular carbon filter on an RO unit will not remove it. You need a special carbon filter like this one:

http://www.buckeyehydro.com/chloraguard-chloramine-carbon-block/

It will also need to be the first filter after any sediment filters (so before your normal carbon block).

 

[Aveet]

I'll retest my water but if I remember correctly my city doesn't treat with chloramine. I'll contact the water department and get a full read out of what they treat the supply water with.

 

[ramseynb]

I'll retest my water but if I remember correctly my city doesn't treat with chloramine. I'll contact the water department and get a full read out of what they treat the supply water with.

You're lucky if they don't! I just thought I would throw that out there because it seems like more and more city water is being treated with chloramine and most people's RODI unit is ill-equipped to handle it. I spent probably a year or more battling problems in my tank (mostly cyano) before finding out that my problem was chloramine.

 

[nereefpat]

Chloramine has some relationship to cyanobacteria? Haven't heard of that. Do you have some reading on that?

 

[ramseynb]

Chloramine has some relationship to cyanobacteria? Haven't heard of that. Do you have some reading on that?

Not directly, but it has a relationship with ammonia so it was like constantly dumping ammonia in my tank. I think cyano just happened to be what affected me, but it could be anything that's going to feed off that ammonia/nitrate.