I had Cyano really bad the redish black stringy kind you are describing and I walked into Red Coral in Calgary and talked to Kevin & Doug, problem solved! First thing I did was water flow Doug calculated what my water flow should be for my 75g tank and wow was I ever short of that, so I bought some power heads and increased water flow by 3,000g/hr Second thing I did was I bought some Coral Snow and I've been using it ever since. Third thing I did was changed the food I was feeding my fish, now I use Phylankton, which has virtually no phosphates. Fourth thing I did was increased my water changes to between 5% & 10% every week. Fifth thing I did was bought two Sand Sifting Yellowheaded Golbies, and they do wonders in keeping the sand clean.
Anyways I wouldn't advise doing the blackout thing because I did it and ya it worked ok for a few weeks but it always came back. I also tried Red Slime by Chemiclean and it also worked for a few weeks, (closer to a month) but it always came back. Myka has a great article on this web site that deals with problem algae’s and cyano, the causes and how to get rid of it. Good luck! Again I haven't had any return for over a year now.
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