Cleaning tank

[Caige]

This pic is the brochure pic of the back of my 28gallon Solana tank. My questions are...

• in section #2 I have little specs all over the place... looks like little balls of brown fuzz... sure it's algea or something... Should I be siphoning this clean during water changes?
• In section #9 - on the outside walls of my protein skimmer I also have these same brown fuzzy spots... should I be taking out protein skimmer and cleaning these during water changes?
• FYI -- in section #5, I have it filled with LR.. .no probs here.

Reason I ask this is because I am having a constant Cyano problem... it's under control because I perform water changes every 4 days.. .during PWC's I also clean all the filters and vacuum gravel.... but i'm thinking these "dirty" sections in the back of tank my be helping the Cyano.

 

[Caige]

Oh, the tank is about 8mths old and is being used as a reef tank... I have a clown fish, bubble tip, Zoo, 2 emeralds, 8 nassarius, 5 mexican's, open brain and frog spawn.... all are doing well.

 

[DJLiquid]

Your cyano will die off soon. Don't go crazy with the cleanings or you'll go crazy. Algae in the back (filter area) will die off too. Like the cyano, the algae is feeding off of the high nutrient level you must have had in aquarium. Relax and keep up the maintenance of your tank with PWC's and don't feed your fish/inverts so often. You can taper off to every two weeks eventually as long minimize your bio load.