GROSS!
 

I left for work this morning, and my new tank was fine... clear.. nice..
came home from work, and now I have all these little brown spots(rust colored) all over the white sand, and glass, even on the rocks..! WHY?.. Is this normal in the cycling process.. and how do I get rid of it? HELP! :cry:

normal cycling...wait it out. it's the "detrius cycle" or something of the like..happens to most people...took my tank about 6 months for everything stabilize..all the algaes and nutrients.

diatoms, the first part of cycling prosess, it will go away soon.

Should I scrape it off?.. it's hideous... :( or would that make it worse? and how will it dissapear?
Oh, and My Ammonia is at Zero today :)!
Going to test the rest tomorrow

I would just leave it and let the cycling do it's thing....lots of things are going to happen to your tank while it cycles, I would suggest not putting anything in their untill it has gone through it's cycles!!

How will I know that it's done cycling.. besides the Amonia/Nitrite/Nitrate being at Zero?

I'm getting strands of hair algea now.. yuck. And my white sand is now a gross brownish color... how and when will that go away?

I have some of that Nutrafin "CYCLE" solution.. should I add any of that now, or wait, or not at all? Has anyone ever used this in a SW aquarium?

Before adding any stuff, maybe tell us how many (and what type of) snails and crabs do you have? A cleanup crew is usually the best method of taking care of the various algae cycles in a new tank.

That's a 90, right? A couple dozen snails (Astreas are good) and 6-10 crabs (Scarlet Reef hermits are good) will get that back in shape, and help you stay ahead of the next wave of scummy gunk. :biggrin:

As for critters right now I just have the hitchhikers from the rocks..
there are tons of pink/purple bristle worms.. LOTS!
Snails, I've spotted 3 slug-type ones, then a bunch of little tiny swirly shell ones..(I know I am not being to specific), quite a few feather dusters... some are not doing so well right now.. and a very small (1cm) brittle star.. Oh and lots of pods come out in the dark.. but no crabs..

Maybe get some mail-ordered from Aquaria Canada in Ottawa, or even J&L in Vancouver. That would be your best bet for a long-term natural solution.

wait a sec aren’t you adding another pile of rock soon? if so you will be cycling all over again so you had better hold off.