New and Old aquarists may find this post helpful when you want immediate answers.
One major problem in tanks is cyano. This is especially true in new unestablished tanks. First lets state the reasons for that.
1) New tanks often have live rock cured in them before adding any fish to the tank; this leaves dead decaying matter in the tank to fuel cyano growth.
2) New tanks also aren't as stable on the chemical level as older more established tanks. Given time and careful water maintenance your water parameters will become more stable as well.
3) Other things I have heard help fuel cyano is low pH, how true this is I'm not sure, but low pH can cause many other problems as well.
Now to actually curing the cyano problem. There are many products on the market designed to kill cyano but I'm not a fan of dumping all sorts of chemicals into my tank. This usually involves checking if its ok with inverts, corals and fish. I choose to use a more natural way to rid the cyano which is just as easy.
Before doing any of the steps check for phosphates and nitrates. High phosphates and nitrates are notorious for helping to grow this stuff. High levels of phosphates are considered more than 0.03ppm while high nitrates are over 20ppm. If any of these are your problem, simple weekly water changes with RO water will help with your fix.
After Checking for phosphates here are your steps.
1) Weekly water changes using RO water. RO water eliminates an excess nutrient problem from even entering the water.
2) Increase Circulation in the tank. Cyano is known to thrive in areas of low circulation. (General Rule is 10x more circulation than tank volume)
3) Good Skimmer and skimmer maintenance. (Cleaning the collection cup often, and cleaning the skimmer itself once a month if possible)
4) Dripping kalk at night will help to precipitate out CaPO4, which can then be collected by the skimmer
5) Suck out any large patches of cyano with a turkey baster, this will completely remove the nutrients from the water column.
Other notes
-Over feeding will also help to raise nutrient levels.
-Cutting back on lighting period can help to reduce cyano (not preferred in my eyes)
-Growing macro algae will take up excess nutrients before cyano can use them.
Hope this helps and I hope you can avoid using those needless chemicals. They are only temporary fixes they will not solve your problem. Curing cyano is more than just making it disappear, it’s correcting the entire problem.
Good Luck!