Ready for real fish?

[99taws6]

Ok, I have a 72gal Bowfront that is reef ready and plumbed to a 29gal sump/fuge. I have a Red Sea Skimmer, a Eheim return pump and 3 marineland powerheads. I have about 70lbs rock in the tank and 20 in the fuge. The fuge and tank each have about a 4-5" sand bed. The tank was setup when I bought it and we saved as much of the water as we could.

I have had the tank setup and running now about 1month. I have had 2 mollies in the tank for the last 2 weeks. I have had snails and a few hermit crabs since the tank was setup. I recently put 2 chromus damsels in the tank about 7days ago. All my levels are testing good and all seems to be going great with the life in the tank except..... I am getting brown everything in my tank. My sand is turning brown and I have found from research that this seems to be caused by not using RO/DI water.

I will use RO/DI when I add or change water as well as cut down on my lighting times to stomp out this algea. I have about 8 snails (1 large, 7 tiny) and 5 crabs (1large, 4 tiny), 2 or 3 mushrooms on a rock and a few other softies that came with the tank.. I lost a torch when I realized that my salt level was way low in my water from when I added my sump/fuge and used freshwater.. But all seems to be striving now..

What should the next purchase be for my tank? I really want to start adding some colorful fish to my tank. I do not want to break the bank, but I want some hardy inhabitants and friendly fish. Help me make my next move.


Thanks in advance

[greenmako]

Patience
I would wait till the diatoms go away as it is part of the algae cycle so just wait it out.
then I would add a few fish

[engwife36]

if you have the money I would change out the 3 marineland powerheads to something with better flow.

[RayAllen]

I agree with engwife36. Maybe replace them with 3 Hydor Koralia #3's. Sounds like you are off to a good start. You mention above you have a few corals what kind of lighting are you running?

[99taws6]

Ok, well I will slow down and let the tank do it's thing I guess... I will shop around for some better powerheads. I like to find bargains and deals, so that way I don't break the bank on this... ;)

For lighting I have a retrofit kit with power compact florescent lights.. I do not know the exact numbers right now, but they each are 2 bulbs (1set white, 1set blue) and they have a large ballast w/fan and heatsink.

Here is the coral I do not know their common name. but I will do my best!! CORALS>>> brown frog spawn , large orange button , small rock with 2 mushrooms 1 pink 1 green and a bunch of little things that look like my orange button only smaller...

[MissT]

Another thing I would think about doing is adding more snails. Nassarius seem to be the best workers and they are awesome for taking care of detritus and carrion. A good clean up crew to start with will save you many headaches in the future. Scarlet hermit crabs also seem to be excellent workers because they tend to stay in smaller areas and work on algae problems where the blue/red legged ones just run around seeking out the "easiest" source of food instead of actually working to keep the tank clean.