Hi there. I have a 6 month old tank and I’m not sure what is going on with the sand bed. It isn’t the pretty white sand anymore and there is quite a bit of brown growing over some areas. Not sure if this is hair algae, dinos, cyano, diatoms…or all of the above. Is this just part of the normal ugly phase or something more worrisome? I clean (syphon) part of the sand (in a different area each time) with every water change every 2 weeks, but it seems to be getting worse. I went 3 months without the light (before getting coral) in the beginning to try to minimize the ugly phase. Any advice would be appreciated. I included photos of parameters and the tank in question. Thanks so much!! Also, my phosphates did bottom out a few weeks ago to 0.0, so I fed heavy for a few weeks to get them back up a little. Not sure if that is helpful info or has something to do with what’s going on.
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