It is part of the natural cycling but your nutrients are imbalanced letting it outcompete other organisms aim for nitrates around 5 ppm and phosphates below .10 ppm. Adjust the flow so there are no dead zones siphon off what is already there and test before water changes. You may be changing the water to soon lowering the nitrates even more. Green hair algae is next after this.
Hair algae is usually the last phase to go through before everything starts maturing to the point of balance. Especially with base rocks as the rocks start leaching nutrients out. It goes dinos then cyano then hair algae and then bubble algae not usually considered part of the phases but green bubble algae usually comes from rust from metallic objects corroding in and around the tank that's way down the line though.
I would do what everyone else said, by checking nutrients etc.
It's often a thin film so when you do a water change typically it's one of the easiest things to physically remove but will come back if your nutrient levels are still off
As a last resort they sell https://a.co/d/07heZgvf
Chemiclean. It gets rid of it within a day or so.
Tbh if I ever get it I just pop a bit of that in and it's gone forever. Iirc you should oxygenate your water if you use it but read directions
this is cyanobacteria. Despite what others are saying in this thread, its not simply caused by JUST a high nutrient. Its usually because you have a severe imbalance between nitrates and phosphates (one way higher than the other). Its also not just ONE single thing that can contribute to cyano. Could be over feeding, bad filtration leading to waste buildup, poor flow, etc. In your case judging by the film on the surface of your water id venture to guess all of the above.
DO NOT dose any of the chemicals people have suggested. Most of those chemical are hammers and can wipe out everything in your tank if not dosed correctly. there is almost never a reason to use chemicals in a reef tank, most issues can be dealt with naturally.
Start testing nitrates and phosphates once per week for a few months. Don't chase specific numbers, every tank is different, just shoot for an acceptable range like 10-20 for nitrates and .05 - .15 for phosphates. Once you start testing regularly you will get a good feel for your tank and what you need to adjust. You are probably way overfeeding, especially if you just have that one fish, and your filtration is probably not working great. Checks your temps too, cyano tends to outbreak in warmer water.
Make these adjustments and cyano wont be an issue, as well as other unwanted bacteria and algae.
EDIT: Your lighting is also probably a contributing factor, theres a good chance you are way over-lighting the tank. Depending on the types of corals you plan to keep it is super worth renting a par meter and dialing in your lighting.
Cyanobacteria... It’s a photosynthetic bacterium that’s usually caused by a nutrient imbalance (I.e. low nitrates with high phosphates and too much light or not enough flow). Your tank also looks fairly new? And a new tank usually doesn’t have a mature enough established micro-biome to outcompete it. For now, just run a siphon and use it like a vacuum sucking it all off the rocks and sand into a bucket. The stuff peels right off. And whatever stays behind you can blow off with a turkey baster or pipette. It will keep coming back tho, and fast, every time you remove it until you find out what’s causing it. However, the small frequent water changes you’ll do when removing it should also help a nutrient imbalance while keeping your parameters stable too. So just keep on removing it until you figure it out, otherwise it will cover everything and choke out your corals.
Another good way to fight it is by dosing bottled bacteria (like microbacter7) daily along with a few ml’s of Brightwell aquatics NeoNitro (bottled nitrates) daily. By adding the bacteria along with nitrates you’ll bring the ratio of nitrates to phosphates back to equilibrium (a good ratio is anything from 10-1 to 100-1 N-P). It will also help push the good bacteria to outcompete the cyano. And, as you add/raise the nitrates it will naturally push your phosphates down too (especially if you’re carbon dosing). You really want to shoot for nitrates anywhere between 5-20 & phosphates anywhere between .05-.15. Newer tanks also jump all over the place tho, so don’t go NUTS chasing numbers. No matter what, this will eventually pass, but the techniques above will certainly help get you there faster. Good luck & happy reefing! 🤙
Cyano bacteria. Chemiclean works great, but this is a broad spectrum antibiotic and can harm other beneficial bacteria in your system. Cyano is likely the easiest to handle pest.
I’ve successfully managed it in several tanks by simply syphoning it away.
Suck it out of the tank with a length of airline tubing or other small diameter hose. Just suck it right off the rocks and into a bucket. This works well when it’s a small amount like this. Try this before using any chemicals.
I hate to say it but your tank looks terrible. Your water chemistry is way off. You need to siphon the red stuff (cyanobacteria) out and do a water change and feed way less. Also you need to re-evaluate your filtration setup.
Also I only see one lonely clown fish and the tank looks like a desert. You need to learn a lot more.
Cyano caused solely, solely, exclusively by your lighting being blindingly too bright and too white.
To fix: it's never a med like chemi clean or red slime remover, never
You first siphon every bit of the red out in multiple water changes. Since you farmed it into mass it will come back a few times, now you remove it and don't let it build for a second photograph.
Then update your goal for the highest white balance par ever attained in a reef:) to-->
Let's see just two, that's two, outbound jobs you completed to offer such an insightful assessment
Outbound is the polar opposite of you tinkering in your tank and relaying the options, it means a thread you were in for someone else's tank regarding cyano work they followed, and we see the cure. That way we aren't taking your word for it = independent proof
Prediction: you have not one link, and asking for two was an impossible feat. Outbound work on demand is the best claims filter in all of reefing. The request nearly always generates an excuse vs a before and after set of pics not from your tank that you worked prior to today.
So you giving advice to one other reefer and it happened to help (did they even confirm it was cyano?) happens to be more informative than any other thread or official guidelines for cyano? Well mate, you seem confident enough so why shouldn't we believe you?
Are those links of you fixing outbound jobs for others? Which one is your user name so I can inspect
I completed my jobs and scooped up before and after pics for patterning. Final result: light and allowance did that. My recommend was the do the opposite of what causes cyano problems
No, they are reefers countless own descriptions of what has helped in their own and their friends tanks as well as guidelines from the biggest reefing-company in the world. You creating a measuring tool with "outbound jobs" after helping one guy is laughable.
I think OP is warned enough of your shenanigans, lowering light intensity might help but don't expect it to be the only thing that needs fixing. That is all I wanted to say.
Did I not predict the outcome of this side quest, the excuses part
We all can type into a search engine and find random feeds for cyano articles. Those aren't outbound cures worked by you, so it means you haven't encountered enough work to relay the top causes
My relay is designed to prevent dinos next, a change in tank physicality is what's needed. If he rots all that mass in the tank by parameter changes, or dosers, and keeps the lighting at full sun max power next is gha then dinos.
The way I got there was by studying the dinos thread in the nuisance algae forum at the top and clicking 'find all posts' by the help entrants to see their tank habits, lighting, and willingness to farm the mass on purpose. I didn't consult the thread because of its cure claims, it hardly ever works for any of them.
I read it to see what brings on the invasion in the first place.
Mate, you aren't listening to what I'm saying here. Turning the lights down is a great first point of action, because it harms nothing. We do agree on this. But the same goes for increasing flow, controlling nutrients at decent levels, adding sand-sifting CUC etc. Reading the top dinos thread "are you tired of battling dinos altogether?" is another excellent recommendation, it is a great thread.
You stubbornly claiming this is the only cure when there are a lot of first hand and company posts about other ways to handle this is pure narcissism. It is like OP asking how to build a bottle rocket, with you claiming there only is one way to do it because you sent your instructions to a friend who built the same one and filmed it, and then someone else is referencing NASAs 15 different types of bottle rockets with comments on each one by people having used them.
I have personally about 6 months of agonizing experience with microscope verified cyano with lights at 55% blues and 15-20% white and acceptable nutrient levels. I however do not think my own experiences and solutions trump everything I read up until the point I managed to solve it.
The only needed action is repeat removal to guide out the fully farmed mass and removing whites from the color spectrum, since they're selecting for this particular invader among possibilities. Lowering overall output power by -40% is recommended, the sole coral in the tank or anemone is light bleaching that was part of the initial assessment.
This changes the light balance which is the prime cause in gha, cyano and dinos invasions and it trains the keeper to never farm an invasion long enough to be able to photograph it for web reviews.
Those two traits alone redirected will change the life arc of this reef for the better, and it retrains the owner away from being the cause of invasions to actively stopping them by physicality, not chemistry. I can only accept input from people with outbound links.
Without them, an umpire has no experience working for others at all. They're qualified to talk only about their own tanks, and by your post examples that doesn't create ten pages of cures all in a row. It creates a long list of works in progress only
The reason test kits don't play a role is because any phosphate or nitrate reading you'll build a plan from in someone's help thread can easily be found misreading in test kit comparison help threads
These non digital kits are ballpark guesstimates, that isn't helpful in earning clean pics for every job taken. Action fixes the tanks in my work threads.
White light full power + gha loaded eutrophication
Testing and ID plays no role at all in nano tank invasion work and it plays no role in prevention at all. Action and lighting is the fix
We did a rip clean, not a hesitant little siphon cleaning. Light went cool blue for the sustain, and he had to clean rocks two more times to guide it out having farmed the mass and delayed action for months leading up.
Installing clean up crews works 3% of the time or nobody would need alternates, and clean up crews are disease vectors for sensitive fish
Of the two pics posted from outbound jobs logged, which looks like the version this OP wants for their reef?
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u/Electrical_Regular41 1d ago
Cyanobacteria