New tank ugly stage or bigger problem? Please help

[Atoll on me]

Hello! My tank is about 7 weeks old and has a good amount of redish/brownish material on rocks, but mostly sand. I am wondering if this is part of the uglies and I should let it do its thing or if I should intervene.

Water parameters: I dose all for reef due to low alk.
Salinity-1.024
Ph- 8.4 at end of lights. 8.0 before they turn on
Nitrate-<5 but visible on api test kit
Phosphate-0
DKH- 8
Calcium-400

I did brush the rocks and cleaned some sand yesterday. Cleaning the sand is difficult with my current siphon but a new one is coming.

Attached are pictures of the same area. Two with white light and two with blue/white mix.

I’m mostly wondering if I should just let it go or if I need to do something before it gets to out of hand.

 

[TX_REEF]

definitely looks like uglies, but also maybe you shouldn't need to dose AFR in a new tank. If you just need alk buffered, use something like this: https://amzn.to/411Hnlg

 

[ScottJ]

Seven weeks is brand new! Ugly stage can last a while, especially with dry rock start. The hard part is the desire to intervene with some treatment or other. That usually just makes things worse. Just let it run its course, you are in it for the long haul. Use good salt, RODI water, manual cleaning regularly, and don't try to 'fix' ugly stuff with chemicals right away. All that microscopic life you are cultivating has to sort itself out.

Personally, I wouldn't dose anything, tank is way too young for that.

 

[Peair]

Your parameters look ok, 8.4 PH is great for corals, I would take all rocks out and scrum that diatom algae off, vacuum sand bed, clean all glass, keep lights at 6 hours a day, and now that your tank looks new again, never let it get that way again, check everyday for algae and if you see it clean it up right away, and get a couple crabs and snails.

 

[sixty_reefer]

You need to remove any phosphate absorbing media if you have one or look at bringing them up.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Lert it run its course. The more you try to intervene the longer you will have to wait. As mentioned before, this is the norm when using dry rock.

 

[Merge_595]

Hello! My tank is about 7 weeks old and has a good amount of redish/brownish material on rocks, but mostly sand. I am wondering if this is part of the uglies and I should let it do its thing or if I should intervene.

Water parameters: I dose all for reef due to low alk.
Salinity-1.024
Ph- 8.4 at end of lights. 8.0 before they turn on
Nitrate-<5 but visible on api test kit
Phosphate-0
DKH- 8
Calcium-400

I did brush the rocks and cleaned some sand yesterday. Cleaning the sand is difficult with my current siphon but a new one is coming.

Attached are pictures of the same area. Two with white light and two with blue/white mix.

I’m mostly wondering if I should just let it go or if I need to do something before it gets to out of hand.

Looks like Diatoms which is usually the first algae you'll get in a new system. Just copepods & if you can find someone with a clean tank & "borrow" some media it'll speed the process up to mature the system.
https://topshelfaquatics.com/products/wild-reef-pre-seeded-bio-media

 

[SantaMonica Verified Sponsor]

No need to do anything. Not pretty but I don't see any corals being harmed.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Imo there is nothing normal happening in your tank at the moment, the algae that you are seeing taking over it’s not diatoms, the only one that can be considered normal at this stage
In addition I can see that you have started with some mature rock mixed in with dead rock, some of the photosynthetic organisms on the mature rock will be consuming nutrients and the dead rock will need many more for organisms and microbes be able to colonise the rock.
You can do nothing and see your tank getting worse by the day and prolong the ugly stage or you can add 0.1 ppm phosphate and see a reduction in the same.

 

[Atoll on me]

Thank you all!