Ugly stage

[abryant]

Just happened in my newly cycled tank I have a clownfish and a watchman goby and pistol shrimp will they be okay in complete darkeness I just taped towels to the side of my tank to keep the light out to stop the algae from growing and I’m also gonna keep my lid light off, I was gonna do this for like 2ish days to try to kill the algae off, are my fish gonna be fine with no light and will this method kill off all the algae?

 

[blaxsun]

They'll be fine (possibly a bit confused, but they'll cope). And see the responses below...

 

[RedoubtReef]

If it were me, I'd add a clean-up crew. Lots of snails, a tuxedo urchin, a small conch, and maybe some hermits. I'd rather see the tank and fish and get through the ugly stage. There's no skipping it, especially when using dry rock to start a new tank.

 

[Jekyl]

Worrying about "that" as algae is way overblown. That's just the start of it and is a normal process when using dry rock. As mentioned above manage parameters and ensure proper CuC

 

[abryant]

If it were me, I'd add a clean-up crew. Lots of snails, a tuxedo urchin, a small conch, and maybe some hermits. I'd rather see the tank and fish and get through the ugly stage. There's no skipping it, especially when using dry rock to start a new tank.

I will do that also but do you think I’d be fine to take the cover off the tanks glass if I did that?

 

[RedoubtReef]

Yes, just embrace the 'ugly'. You spent all the money and time to get started, enjoy it!

 

[bushdoc]

Those are most probably diatoms, first stage of your tank road to maturity. IMHO it is an overkill to completely cover the tank to get rid of them, they will eventually disappear on it's own and other algae will follow.