cyanobacteria / green slime algae problem

[grim0822]

i have a 30 gallon live rock and sand tank. my bioload is pretty light, just two clowns and a chromis. i also have three red legged hermits scrounging around.

my problem is that green slime algae has taken over my tank. i feel like my skimmer does a fine job. it's ready for emptying after 2 days, usually with plenty of gunk. i test weekly and all parameters seem good (zeroes on nitrites and nitrates, pH about 8.3, specific gravity about 1.22, temp. is about 79).

i've read up on how to get rid of algae; less lighting, less feeding, more water changes. i'm doing all of those things but the stuff won't go away. it seems to me like there's so much of it, that the water changes can't really make any headway.

what i'm wondering is if i should put the fish in another tank temporarily and just scrub the tank, rocks and all. my biggest issue is w/ the live sand. i'm not sure how i could even get it out of the sand.

any suggestions?

thanks!

 

[sassyfishy]

You could give the surface of the sand a bit of a stirring and syphon the waste.

How's your flow? I found when I added another power head to my system, the flow improved and the "dead areas" were corrected. My understanding is that cyano usually won't thrive where there is a lot of flow.

 

[Black Phantom]

One of the first things is where do you get your water.
There have been a lot of posts from people who switched from store bought water to their own RO system and that solved the problem.

 

[six.line]

Also, do you have a refugium growing macro algae? Those can help compete for nutrients that cyano or other less-fun algae eat up.

 

[PatMayo]

This thread will help

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=147010

Regards,

Pat

 

[grim0822]

thanks for the responses. i was actually just about to start using store bought ro water, so i'll definitely give that a try. and i think i'll add another powerhead.

thanks again.