I think I’m in the ugly stage....help!

[crysber]

Before I ask my questions I’ll list my parameters
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10
Phosphates 0
I have a biocube 32, run chemipure elite, purigen and filter floss, I also have the fuge basket with chaeto in it. The pictures I’m attaching are of now the ugly brown/reddish ones and the bright green ones were about 1.5 months ago. My tank is 4 months old (I know I probably stocked to fast the corals have been there about a month and are doing good though) I have 2 clowns 2 pajama cardinals 1 yellow watchmen goby and 1 firefish, all we’re doing great and still are evem with all the algae.

my question is, how do I get past this ugly stage of this is what it is?!? I do 15% water change every week (though last week I did 30% because the algae is so bad) I’ve done a 3 day lights out which helped for a while but it all came back. I clean the glass daily, scrub and blow the rocks every few days and blow the sand a bit every few days as well (when I blow the rocks and sand it’s like a reddish powdery substance that comes off) there is some hair algae as well, it all just keeps coming back, I have a sufficient clean up crew of about 10 Trochus (thees are new about a week) 12 nerite 12 Cerith and about 15 nassarius snails (I just added some of these as some of my first batch just up and died) but the snails can’t seem to keep up with all the algae!! I also have a skimmer that seems to work well, I started using some mb7 (first dose last week) I did a fishless cycle to start with dr tims and the tank was cycled in about a month, I’m new to all this, I did do some research, I cycled with no lights and thought I was good to go after the cycle, now I’m in the middle of what I assume is the ugly stage but not sure how to get through this, or what else I should be doing!!

 

[PeterB113]

Phos of 10 is pretty high how often do you feed? Also i wouldnt dose anything keep up with WC and wait it out it will go away. also feed less.

 

[crysber]

Phos of 10 is pretty high how often do you feed? Also i wouldnt dose anything keep up with WC and wait it out it will go away. also feed less.

That was a typo! Phos is 0 probably because of the algae

 

[crysber]

That was a typo! Phos is 0 probably because of the algae

I feed once a day, sometimes frozen mysis or brine sometimes flake

 

[Jekyl]

Heavy bioload for the tank size. You're going to be fighting an uphill battle. Keep up on water changes and remove what you can by hand. If you don't have a skimmer, get one. As you said you added too many fish.

 

[crysber]

Heavy bioload for the tank size. You're going to be fighting an uphill battle. Keep up on water changes and remove what you can by hand. If you don't have a skimmer, get one. As you said you added too many fish.

I do have a skimmer, I added 2 at a time about every 3 weeks after it was cycled... now I know.

 

[Cheeze]

Following, as I'm waiting for my ugly stage (diatoms) to hit soon

 

[Jekyl]

Don't get discouraged. As long as there are no territory issues with the fish you should be fine. Your algae doesn't look terrible. My tank looked awful during the uglies. Use a toothbrush on the end of the siphon during water changes to scrub and remove the excess algae. Don't add any more fish. Ditch the flakes and feed a frozen variety.

 

[ScottR]

From what I see, NO3 of 10 and PO4 of 0 is normal and too good for a new tank. I’d assume PO4 is probably truly not zero unless using a hanna ULR. Many test kits don’t test in the low range. And from what I see in the pics, this is normal. I think many people jump in to the hobby expecting to keep rocks and sand purely white. It’s just not going to happen. “If you can’t grow algae, you can’t grow corals”.

 

[TrevorL]

I have a Biocube as well and this is exactly what my tank looked like during the ugly stage. My rock is still green but with corals taking over the rock I see less and less of it. This is all normal and should go away soon with water changes and maintenance.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

as others mentioned, wait it out. The bacteria is balancing out in your tank. Its not a plague, believe it or not this is a good and neccessary thing

 

[schuby]

Try to exercise some patience. Your brown sand looks like diatoms to me, caused by excess silicate. If your not adding silicate in your top-off (RO/DI) water, then they should go away in a week or two, after they consume all/most of the available silicate.

Trying to avoid the ugly-phase just prolongs it. Let nature run its course.

If you starve your tank with minimal food or over-filtering, trying to prevent algae growth, then'll you will likely end up with dinos. I haven't had them (other then briefly during startup ugly-phase), but I've read on here they can be very difficult to eradicate.

 

[crysber]

Thanks everyone, I feel better about this now and will just continue maintenance and wait it out. I am using rodi water for my salt water as well as top offs (which I don’t actually do much of since i still have the the lid on)