Cyano bloom questions

[pdwire]

I am in the midst of a Cyano bloom and have tried to read up as much as possible on ways to combat but have a few questions.

Things I am doing
More frequent water changes -1 per week
Optimizing skimmer efficiency- Aqua C Remora HOB
Feeding less- I have a Tang and a clown. The tang gets Seaweed selects 2x3 square every other day and the clown gets Nutrafin Marine Flake food every other day

Things I am going to do or considering:
Increase water flow- currently have two Maxijet 1200 and one Maxijet 1200 running the HOB skimmer for 55gal tank. Considering installing a closed loop with a Mag 9.5.
Using a phosphate sponge-

Questions:
1) Anything I am doing wrong or should be considering?
2)How do I go about cleaning the cyano on sandbed? Just vaccum up the sand?
3) Should I try to remove off the sandbed before getting it under control? won't it just grow back.
4) is it Ok to just scrape it off the glass? won't this spread it around the tank
5) I have never used/seen a phosphate sponge. Recommendations? Can I use these in my AquaClear 300 HOB that I have left from freshwater days?

Thanx for the help. It is getting worse every day!!

 

[Anemoneman]

Do you have any macroalgae competing for nutrients? Cyano grows in a nutrient rich environment. Once you get that under contrl the cyano will go away. Keep on vacuuming it out. Use RO water. Use macro for nutrient export. You'll get rid of it.

 

[pdwire]

no Macroalgae and no fuge. With stepped up efforts how long before I see an improvement? I want to be patient but also want to know if what I am doing is having an effect before I change and do something else.

I have always used RO water so I still have not identified the source of PO4. Phosphate Kit is on the way so hopefully this will help me track down the source.

 

[Anemoneman]

I grow macroalgae in a section of my main tank. Never really had luck with it until I got MH lighting. Most of my problems with reefkeeping went away after switching to MH lighting - I really recommend them.
It is imperative that you actively pursue nutrient export. Phosphate likely coming from food. What is the nitrate level?

 

[pdwire]

Is there a food souce that would have less phosphate that I could switch to? Nitrates are 10.

 

[Anemoneman]

Maybe try making your own out of seafood, nori and vitamins. Lot's of folks are doing that so they know what's in there.

 

[tundar]

Check your temperature. Cyno loves higher temperatures. Also try running a diatom filter once you are finished removing the algae. That will remove most of it's micro particles floating around giving it less chance to settle on sand and LR. Manual removal of Cyno is the best bet.
As for Phosphate sponge or Phos-absorb is used in periods of anywhere from 8hr to 2 days depending on the product. Then replacement of old phosphate with new to start process again. If you keep the old phosphate in too long, it may release the absorbed phosphate.

good luck