My new/first tank(need lots of help!!!):]

[toughmeninpink]

Ok
so as the title says this is my first tank
its been up and running for exactly 2 weeks today
its a 72 gallon bow front
theres 70 pounds of live rock n lik 70-90 pounds of live sand
i just added 2 green/blue chromus today
i put 10 blue leg hermits in lik 3 days ago

Now, i got the water tested and it tested out nicely
everything was perfect sept some nitrates, but they were EXTREMELY low:]
Heres my problem
i have red algea all on the sand and on some of the rock
the wierd thig is it has not grown to the newly added 46 pounds i added on saturday
i did use tap water to fill the tank
i was wonder if some one could diagnose for me and help em fix i would be grateful
i put pics in attachment.....they are gunna be GREAT because they are taken with my iphone(no digital camera)
please if i could get some help
thanks

[toughmeninpink]

bump

[umakemekissu]

i'm not a professional but my guess would be the Tap water.. i have heard some bad things about it! try to switch to RO/DI water! hope it will help +_+

[luther1200]

That is normal in a new tank. It should go away on its own. But I would get an RO/DI to make you water from now on. Unless you buy it from the lfs or something.

[D.J.]

normal brown algea from new tank setup......it will go away on its own.....just gona take some time.....if your lucky you wont get cyano as well.....but ive had it 3 times in 3 different tanks......

[Mr.Peanut]

Totally normal.

Welcome to TRT.

Slow down a little. 2 weeks old is really rushing it. Take your time.

[Phishnoob]

I am a really impatient person but follow the three following rules of reefkeeping:

1. Use good water. Make your own from distilled at the supermarket with salt mix if you want. Heat it to the temp of your tank and let an old powerhead sit in there overnight once it is mixed to the right salinity. Remember that distilled water evaporates (so you have to add distilled or RO/DI) and salt water is added when you do water changes.

2. Don't overfeed, let bunches of stuff accumulate in the nook and crannies or use a filter for more than a day. All this stores phosphates which will later on supply algae of all types with food.

3. Sit on your hands. Our tank is just now getting dialed in at 14 months. Add a couple of clean up critters or one fish at a time later then wait a couple of weeks. Stuff dies early on and that is a clue to slow down. Now after a year we have not lost anything and our tank is a stable environment with the rock acting as a buffer.

Come to TRT as often as you can and ask whatever you want. There are probably 300 posts about this brown stuff during cycling like you had and that is just fine.

[lagrew]

slow down and enjoy the tank, your doing great! However i would recomend switching to ro/di water, it doesn't seem like much, but trust me you'll be glad you did!, I found out the hard way.

[Mr.Peanut]

I started with tap water also. Then I was buying ro/di from the LFS for 5 months or so. Recently, I noticed a small algae bloom in one corner of the tank, no matter how much I vacuumed it, it kept coming back. Recently I noticed the sand beds in my LFS turning brown also. I figure they are using/selling substandard ro water. I just bought my own filter.