ugly tank

Hello all, just want to know a couple of things. How long does the ugly stage last? I know there's now miracle product to skip the whole ugly stage but is there something to help speed it up or make it less ugly or troublesome? Should I clean all the algae that my tank is producing during...

Far to often you get to see these beautiful tanks showcased (As they should be ) , this might give the false impression that anyone can have a reef like that in just a few months. The purpose of this thread is to highlight the tank uglies and to show what it really takes to achieve a beautiful reef

Our poor, sad biocube has struggled it's whole life of 2 years. It has gone through every thing, including a crash, but has never looked good. It currently is a hair algae haven. I feel like we have slightly given up on it; it looks the worst it ever has. We are really good with larger tanks...