Ugly phase?

[spamvicious]

My 8 week old tank (fishless cycle finished week 3) now has some orange spots appearing on the sand. I introduced two clowns and a blood shrimp last weekend. I also changed my lighting from a fluval led bar to a much brighter/stronger reef pulsar sps8 five days ago.

Do I need to do anything or is just a normal stage?.

 

[ying yang]

Start of diatoms looks like and normal part of tank starting to mature,no need do anything other than research what cuc eat what in your tank and stock slowly to try get that balance so keep uglies at bay best you can.
Tank starts getting ugly add appropiate cuc for whatever stage you at,if cuc not keeping up then add few more,if cuc doing to good a job,don't add more and look at sublimental feeding cuc

 

[GoVols]

You’ve most likely hit the diatom stage.

In the past I would say just ride it out until they run out of silicates.

After watching the last BRS video, it has changed my perspective.

How 15 Answers Changed the Way I Look at My Tank Forever! 10 Months of Biome Cycling 12 Aquariums

In this live presentation at Reefapalooza New York 2022, Ryan shares the results and draws some insightful conclusions from our 10-month investigation of the reef aquarium biome.

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Seems like adding pods from the start, and a cleanup crew fairly soon helps things out.

 

[ying yang]

Reef Cleaners

A good guide to identify most of the nuisance algae that plagues the hobby. Complete with pictures and suggested treatments

www.reefcleaners.org

Here a little article on algaes if not already read.

 

[spamvicious]

Start of diatoms looks like and normal part of tank starting to mature,no need do anything other than research what cuc eat what in your tank and stock slowly to try get that balance so keep uglies at bay best you can.
Tank starts getting ugly add appropiate cuc for whatever stage you at,if cuc not keeping up then add few more,if cuc doing to good a job,don't add more and look at sublimental feeding cuc

Great thanks I’ll have a look into it now.

 

[RocketEngineer]

1) it’s normal
2) as the good book says “Don’t Panic”. Towel and yellow fish recommended.
3) Don’t rush into adding anything. The mistake I see is folks get just a touch of algae, buy all sorts of cleaners that then starve because there isn’t enough to eat, then the die offs cause more algae problems. Not good.
4) Embrace the ugly phase. It’s going to happen as the biology in the tank goes through a series of blooms and die backs until things settle.
5) For now, keep the lights off most of the time, do regular water changes, enjoy the fish (but don’t add more) and let things follow their normal, 3-6 month phase of bringing life to a sterile tank.