What's this

[Scoobydoo]

It’s multi-colored. Most common is the reddish and the purple type. Here’s a couple colors on my bare bottom tank.

And here’s a rock that is covered in white coralline. The pic doesn’t do it justice but the whole rock is mostly thick white which almost gives it a clean look. To be fair,I’ve had these rocks for years and they’ve battled everything Imaginable.

I guess I'll let it do its thing but will the brown go away or do I need to start over

 

[ThatPhillyReefer]

I guess I'll let it do its thing but will the brown go away or do I need to start over

the brown will never 100% go away, there i’ll always be some but it will be a lot better. just give it time and your tank will be covered in coralline.

You do not need to restart

 

[ScottR]

I guess I'll let it do its thing but will the brown go away or do I need to start over

There’s a saying “if you can’t grow algae, you can’t grow coral”. Algae is a mainstay in our tanks and from the pic you sent, yours is nothing. I start to get worried when I see bubbles forming on the algae or when it gets hairy. Film algae and diatoms are not anything to fret over. Just let your tank run and don’t nuke it or anything. I typically cycle my tank with my lights on full blast to get through the ugly stage faster.

 

[mvbrandt]

Algae is a highly competitive thing that's really good at doing all of the things coral does. Or Coralline algae does. As it's a simpler organism, it finds it easier. Patience. You'll get there.

 

[Scoobydoo]

There’s a saying “if you can’t grow algae, you can’t grow coral”. Algae is a mainstay in our tanks and from the pic you sent, yours is nothing. I start to get worried when I see bubbles forming on the algae or when it gets hairy. Film algae and diatoms are not anything to fret over. Just let your tank run and don’t nuke it or anything. I typically cycle my tank with my lights on full blast to get through the ugly stage faster.

What do you mean by nuke?

 

[ScottR]

What do you mean by nuke?

Some people will dump in chemicals or make drastic changes to try to mitigate a problem but by doing so end up doing more harm than good. It’s usually best to make small changes and using methods proven to work in the hobby.

 

[ScottR]

In your case, what I would do: I’d take a cheap microscope and look at the brown stuff and ID it. If it looks like diatoms for example (they look like tubes under a microscope), then I’d make sure my source water has zero TDS by using RODI. This is to ensure I have no silicates in my water. I’d then run something like phosguard to bring down my PO4 as yours is quite high. Also phosguard will strip silicates out of the water which will help to get the diatom bloom out of the way. But what I did with my most recent tank (8 months or so wet) is just cycle it with the lights on full blast for 12 hours a day to grow all of that stuff out. I used pure live rock from other systems I had running and my tank was full of coralline in no time. But now I see coralline as more of a pest. I guess it looks better than other algae and probably keeps other algae at bay but it does clog my pumps and equipment and is a pain to clean.

 

[Scoobydoo]

the brown will never 100% go away, there i’ll always be some but it will be a lot better. just give it time and your tank will be covered in coralline.

You do not need to restart

I got purple dots today wow