How bad?

[shanedag]

New tank stocked with live rock. Tank is cycled and waiting for my second shipment of no e rock and cleanup crew. This is growing on my back wall. Contained so far to there. I’m afraid to scrape it for fear of it spreading. How bad is this and should I worry about getting rid of it?

 

[Pkunk35]

Happy thanksgiving!

doesn’t look crazy to me, you can scrape and siphon that stuff easily with all flow off because it’s fairly clumpy. The rest will either get eaten or hopefully caught in a filter sock or pad somewhere so you should change those or wash them soon after the scrape and some higher flow when done which is what I do

 

[Orm Embar]

2 great articles to cover the basics:

Nitrate in the Reef Aquarium

Introduction Nitrate is an ion that has long dogged aquarists. It is typically formed in aquaria through the digestion of foods, and in many aquaria it builds up and can be difficult to keep at natural levels. In the past, many aquarists...

www.reef2reef.com

Phosphate in the Reef Aquarium

The phosphorus atom is one of living matter’s basic building blocks. It is present in every living creature and in the water of every reef aquarium. Unfortunately, it is often present in excess in reef aquaria and that excess has the potential to...

www.reef2reef.com

Having said that, getting nuisance algae during tank cycling is pretty common, so I wouldn't be too worried just yet. Just make sure that you are exporting nutrients as much as possible (skim if you have one, have chaeto in a refugium, etc).