An ugly phase?? Help

[mpjmeyer]

Tank has been up amd running since December. First pair of clowns added Feb. 26 as well as a few snails amd a shrimp.

65 gallon display with 10 gallon refugium and a sump. 60lbs live Fiji dry rock, live sand, Lifereef protein skimmer, plenty of flow from the Gyre and a media reactor running. Fuge has live rock and chaeto. Feed a small amount of frozen food once a day

About 3 weeks ago, I realized I've been batting high nitrates because I've never rinsed the foam filter block in sump. Since that mistake, I've rinsed it every other day and done large water changes every Thursday of 35 gallons.

10 days ago, I did a 3 day blackout because my rocks had a red hair substance all over them. After the blackout, all the red was gone. Today, I notice a patch of red on one of the rocks and the back wall looks like it's building it up as well. What is the deal here?? Just am ugly stage or am I doing something else wrong :(

 

[mcarroll]

Ugly phase....too much light with nothing in there to use it.

If you're planning for corals, it's not a bad idea to keep coral population levels balanced with fish. In a healthy system, corals are excellent consumers of detritus and dissolved nutrients.

Without corals, algae will naturally populate exposed surfaces.

 

[mpjmeyer]

I have 2 Radion XR15 gen 4 led's

No corals yet

 

[mcarroll]

I'd shut off the lights completely until there's something in there to use it. :)

Maybe turn up the whites enough so the fish look ok, but I'd keep it on the dim side.