EMERGENCY! Cyano tank crash!

I have a 60 gallon reef that has been set up for nine months . It has 89 pounds of live rock in it and some inverts and fish. Last July I went on vacation to the Carribean Islands and upon my return I noticed a small cyano problem.It was on the substrate some and on the side glass. I assumed it was from leaving the protien skimmer off for a week while I was gone. I thought that with some regular good water changes and leaving the protien skimmer going full force that that would take care of the problem. I was obviously wrong. In the last two and and half months this cyano has taken over my tank and suffocated some of my corals. I was at my wits end with this horrible, terrible, impossible cyano so yesterday I went to the LFS and bought some chemiclean. I followed the directions to the tee but I think I am having disatrious results. This morning my six line wrasse was MIA and this afternoon so was my green chromis. Tonight I have just lost my yellow tang. It says to wait 48 hours before doing a water change of 20% but I felt that I could not wait another 24 hours so I did a 40% water change tonight and after the water change I turned on all the power heads and the protien skimmer to flush this crap from the system My skimmer is going crazy and right now the tank is completely white and looks like a witches brew. My corals have slimed over and look shriveled and terrible. The two remaining fish in my tank at the moment I can not even see. They are a purple tang and a gold striped maroon clownfish. If they live through this it will truly be a miracle. The powerheads were going through the entire treatment but the skimmer was off until tonight after the water change. I left the skimmer off per the directions on the box of the chemiclean.

I don't know. It has been one thing after another with this reef in the nine months that it has been up and I really feel like I am completely devasted and at a complete loss with this reef. I have kept freshwater fish for more than ten years and I thought when the oppurtunity arose that I would be able to handle a saltwater reef. I feel like I made huge mistake in judgement as far as this reef is concerned. If everything dies because of this I seriously do not know what I am going to do.

If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.

Marinemom

I was running all the powerheads in the aquarium that is four of them plus a powersweep. I also ran an airstone in there too. If I have it calculated correctly, my water is being turned over 23 times an hour. Isin't that enough flow? I don't know what my phoshates are or even how to test for them. This may be where the problem is. How do I test for phosphates and where can I get a test for them? I haven't seen them at the LFS.

Marinemom

This morning when I checked on my reef, I noticed that the skimmer had calmed down. Last night the collection cup filled up twice rather quickly after turning it on after the water change. This is the skimmers effort I'm sure to try to flush this chenmical from the system. I have just spotted the purple tang but no sign of the gold striped maroon clownfish or the wrasse. The corals look terrible. I don't know if they will recover.

FWIW I did try to get rid of the cyano by more natural methods since July but to no avail. I just am tired of this cyano destroying my reef. But I guess it has managed to do that anyway.

Marinemom

I just saw my clownfish! Now for the wrasse.

Marinemom

O.K. so I have the purple tang, the gold striped maroon clownfish and the six line wrasse. He was being a wimp and hiding through all of this.

Tonight my reef looks dead. All of the hermit crabs and the snails are dead, two of my fish are dead,most of my corals look dead as well and I do not know how much life there is left on the live rock. The only coral that seems to be rebounding from this ordeal is the flowerpot coral. The rest of them look shriveled and lifeless.I don't know if these corals can recover. Both of the hammers look dead, the torch looks dead,the bubble coral looks dead, frogspawn dead, xenia dead,zoos dead, button polyups dead,doughnut coral looks dead, open brain dead, blue mushrooms look shriveled and dead,green mushrooms dead,leather coral looks dead.Green star polyups look very dead. Most everything looks dead. What a complete mess! I don't know what I am going to do about this reef. I was building a reef for nine months and now it has gone to **** in a handbasket. I spent a lot of money and put a lot of heart and soul into this and I feel like part of me died with this reef.Some of the corals still have some of thier color but look very bad. Do you think that they will recover? Or should I just take them out of the reef now?

Marinemom

A lot of the corals look slimed over but still have some color. What does this mean? Most are not open and are shriveled and dead looking. They look lifeless.

Marinemom

P.S. The P.H is sitting at 8.2. I think this is O.K.

My reef looks worse than it did yesterday. Any corals that might have had any color yesterday now have turned completely white or have this gross reddish brown slime on them. I think at this point it is best to pull these corals from the reef as I see no chance for recovery. As far as this reef is concerned, I have not decided what I am going to do with it yet. I'm not sure if I want to rebuild this reef or not. When I look at it, my heart sinks. I don't want to look at it now. I am going to do another water change today and then see where I am at with this.

Marinemom