Cyano

Flakes also contain some nitrate and phosphate in the processing chemicals and preservatives, but it's a little harder to rinse than frozen food.

 

Ok, rather than "flake", I should say dry foods. What better options do I have than frozen?

 

I feed omega one flakes, but I didn't know about the nitrate part. My fish like pellets as well though.

 

Freeze Dried Mysis
Cyclopeeze forzen
Squid frozen
Krill freeze dried
Brine Shrimp Freeze dried

 

How much GFO/GAC are you running? (You probably need to use more GFO than recommended). How much flow do you have? Is your skimmer pulling out a lot of junk? Really if your removing nutrients efficiently, it doesn't matter what your putting in. I feed a ton, and never have cyano issues, but I'm diligent about changing out GAC and GFO and use a fair amount. My skimmer works real well and I have enough flow to prevent detritus from settling. That's really all there is to avoiding cyano, but sometimes it's easier said than done.

The other potential issue is that if you have had high phosphate levels (undetectable can still be high, most kits aren't sensitive enough to detect phosphate at levels typical in our tanks) for a while, it can bind to rocks and especially sand. So, if it keeps coming back on just the sand, for example, or just certain rocks, that may be an indication that there's some bound. In this case, it can take a lot longer to get rid of, but using the same methods will eventually work. It won't always go away on it's own though, no matter what you do, as it can store a lot of nutrients for latter use. So, sometimes turning the lights out for a few days is helpful to mop it up. Others use chemicals. I don't think that's necessary when turning off the lights is free and has less potential to nuke your biofilter, but that's just my .02...