What to expect during the "ugly phase"

[Glott3133]

It has been almost a daily ritual to clean my glass from brown algae. I also sifted through my sand like cleaning kitty litter to pull up the brown algae.

 

[Semper.Reefing]

It has been almost a daily ritual to clean my glass from brown algae. I also sifted through my sand like cleaning kitty litter to pull up the brown algae.

Yeah same for me. My tank has been up 3 months. I hope at some point the brown algae would be less abundant. I’ve got a lot of coralline algae growing since the beginning of the month so I feel my tank is in somewhat of a mature state.

 

[ccombs]

The ugly phase gets better after a month or two, but it does take about a year for your tank to really settle in and look great.