Brown Algae

[Remmers]

I started to cycle the tank about 3 weeks ago, and I was using existing live sand and live rock. Well bout a week ago I threw in a raw shrimp and a few piece of live rock from the lfs.

Im sure the live rock I first put in died off, since it wa sitting in a tub for awhile.

The skimmer is pulling great dark brown skim and every thing was looking ok, until a few days ago I noticed some brown algae in the corner on the sand bed.

Now it has spread to the rocks and powerheads, but mostly just the one side.

I tested my water last night and everything is perfect.

What is the next step, is this a good thing or a bad thing?


I filled the tank with r/o water and i/o salt.

Temp is 74deg and all the numbers per the test kit are in the zero range.

I am planning on running a dual reactor gfo/carbon as soon as I pick up the gfo.

Any help pointers would be great.

I was supposed to pick up 2 clown fish from a friend today, since the cycle was complete per the test.


Thanks

Rich

[Titans_Reef]

Are you running your lights during the cycle or is sun hitting the tank? A brown dustly looking tank is usually diatoms. It is normal since you have and will have phosphates in the water. When I set up my tanks, I just keep the lights off until the cycle is complete and I start adding livestock to the tanks. Once I turn on the lights, usually within a week or so I start seeing diatoms. Snails will take care of it which the addition of a GFO or biopellet reactor will help remove phosphates from your water. Read the intructions on how to add phosphate removing media since adding too much can affect your water chemistry. If it is diatoms, then you are fine to add the clowns into the tank. I currently just set up my 40g breeder couple months ago but I am using a refugium to export phosphates since my LFS gives me store credit for macro algae. My new set up has a pair of clowns, a yellow clown goby, and a arabian psuedo with 2 turbos and 6 asterea snails to take care of the algae. It is unsightly to look at but over time they will go away to the point you only see it if you do not clean your glass once a week.