Is this cyano? suggestions needed

[reefer]

Hello everyone. I am looking for some help Identifying this green stuff that I have been dealing with for quite a wile, I'll attach some pics. Its all over the rocks and sand bed I can blow it off the rocks but it is back the next day. My clean up crew doesn't seem to eat it. My tank has been been running just over 2 yrs and includes mostly lps and zoa's. My nitrates are 10 and phosphates are .8. I have 2 Noopsyche leds that are running at 35% from 11 to 9, mostly on the blue colors, and a little white, 0 on the greens and reds. I have 2 gyre pumps so I think my flow should be good in the tank. I do 20% water changes every 2 weeks. Right now I am trying coral snow and cyano clean but I am not seeing any improvement so I am not sure if this is cyano. I have been getting different answers on what it is so I am hoping I can get some more opinions here so I can finally get rid of this stuff. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TPhan]

If its a mat or flakes when blown off then thats cyano. For everything else i recommend a microscope to get a positive ID then find the appropriate course of treatment. Have your phosphate always been that high steadily or did it creep up over time?

 

[reefer]

I had the wrong phosphate number, my phosphates are .04. When I blow it off the rocks it just disappears in the water and makes my filter socks green. The only way to get it off the sand is to vacuum the sand but it keeps coming back.

 

[TPhan]

I had the wrong phosphate number, my phosphates are .04. When I blow it off the rocks it just disappears in the water and makes my filter socks green. The only way to get it off the sand is to vacuum the sand but it keeps coming back.

If your phos is really at .04 I would bring it up a bit so it wont bottom out. What u described could be dino. The only way to know for sure is to scope a sample and go from there. How are the corals doing?

 

[reefer]

My corals seem to be doing fine. Where can I get a sample scoped? I am not familiar with getting that done

 

[TPhan]

My corals seem to be doing fine. Where can I get a sample scoped? I am not familiar with getting that done

Either u buy a microscope with at least 200x magnification or find a local reefer that have one to help u out. I recommend buying one, its pretty cool looking at all the microscopic organism in your tank.

 

[reefer]

I thought dynos were brownish, this stuff is green. here are some more pics under white light.

 

[zedxplorer]

Stuffs on the sand bed whether it's dino/cyano, I have luck with getting a few conch snails and let them munch away

 

[reefer]

lol. I did have 1 conch and it didn't seem to do eat it. I found his empty shell last week so I did just buy another one but he's been under the sand for a couple of days

 

[TPhan]

Dino can be green or brown. At this point u dont know what u have thats y u need a positive ID first so u know what to treat for. I would not start dumping stuff in the tank unless I know exactly what I am dealing with. This is where a microscope comes in to take out the guess work.