Well actualy I have more questions then amswers. What water source do you use for water changes? How often and what do you feed?
Here are some thoughts: if using municipal water withought an RO/DI unit....water can change dramaticaly at any given moment. IE construction somehwere in the neighborhood. this could ad contaminents to the water for a short duration especialy in older water systems. Secondly as far as dino's there are several types the more toxic forms are not often seen in aquaria but s**t happens. cyano other then being unsightly would not harm your inhabitants altho they can often choke off corals.
What may have happened (this is just an idea withought knowing the facts of your system) is that judging by the hair algea you mentioned,... you had too many nutrients in the tank to begin with. posably from your makeup water supply. also if you over feed your adding nutrients and you do have/had big waste producing fish in your system.
if you reduced the lighting after the buildup of all these light loving algea,....you may have droped the ph and oxigen content of the water cousing some death wich further agrevates the usage of oxigen in the water column. this could couse a domino effect.
my suspition of this is the fact that you said with lights on you had some clearing of the water, you also mentioned that your skimmer may not be operating up to par.
my sugestion would be keep the lights on a regular schedule, make sure the skimmer operates properly and gives off enough oxigen to make up for the usage by the algea when lights are off and remove any dead material imidiately. keep enough water movement in the tank itself IE: power heads. Make sure to check your water supply and if you dont have one already get a filter for yuor water supply...if you have one make sure if its an RO unit to check the membrane. other then this all I can do is wish you luck and I home some of this helped.
Bob
Here are some thoughts: if using municipal water withought an RO/DI unit....water can change dramaticaly at any given moment. IE construction somehwere in the neighborhood. this could ad contaminents to the water for a short duration especialy in older water systems. Secondly as far as dino's there are several types the more toxic forms are not often seen in aquaria but s**t happens. cyano other then being unsightly would not harm your inhabitants altho they can often choke off corals.
What may have happened (this is just an idea withought knowing the facts of your system) is that judging by the hair algea you mentioned,... you had too many nutrients in the tank to begin with. posably from your makeup water supply. also if you over feed your adding nutrients and you do have/had big waste producing fish in your system.
if you reduced the lighting after the buildup of all these light loving algea,....you may have droped the ph and oxigen content of the water cousing some death wich further agrevates the usage of oxigen in the water column. this could couse a domino effect.
my suspition of this is the fact that you said with lights on you had some clearing of the water, you also mentioned that your skimmer may not be operating up to par.
my sugestion would be keep the lights on a regular schedule, make sure the skimmer operates properly and gives off enough oxigen to make up for the usage by the algea when lights are off and remove any dead material imidiately. keep enough water movement in the tank itself IE: power heads. Make sure to check your water supply and if you dont have one already get a filter for yuor water supply...if you have one make sure if its an RO unit to check the membrane. other then this all I can do is wish you luck and I home some of this helped.
Bob
