Need some help please

Hey everyone I've got a problem that started out small and just slowly got out of control. I noticed a while back a red velvety growth in one spot on my sandbed. I didnt thinbk to much of it at first because it was so isolated and didnt seem to get any bigger. However due to a big change in my work and several family issues, I was forced to be away from home for quite a while. My tank is a 30 gal FOWLR. Now that I am back home I need to deal with this because whatever the red velvet growth is, it covers about 75% of the surfaces in the tank at this point. I have 2 damsel fish and they do not seem to be affected by the red stuff at all. I will try and add a picture as soon as i can to give assistance in identifying the red growth. But for now i would just say it looks like a dark red (maroon) carpet. it has a fuzzy or velvety appearance. Its basically a reddish carpet that has smothered my live rock and sand bed. I know you may not have much assistance available until i get a pic posted but i wanted to get this info out there. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much!!
 
If it's easy to dislodge and floats around, sounds like cyanobacteria. Increase water changes, siphoning it out, and maybe feed the tank less. Do you have a sump with a refugium, or any other means of exporting nitrates? Speaking of nitrates, have you tested recently? They can get rather high in a FOWLR tank.
 
i would definitly go with cyano. but if you have a dsb and fuge it will go away if its a new tank. My 265 had it after 2 weeks even though i was using all my old LR but is now going away quickly. But its all due to nutrient deportation.
 
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