Algae Stages In a New Tank

snyderju

Reefing newb
My gf and I are currently having some trouble with a brownish algae that is growing on our sand bed. When I remove it it sometimes has hairlike growths coming off it that are dark brown or even blackish. When it comes off the sand it comes off in a clump like sod almost.

Tank:
Standard 29 gallon
20" Oddysea t5 lighting with 8-9 month old bulbs. (being replaced in a week with LEDs)

Parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
pH: 8.0

Flow:
2 Korralia 425 GPH powerheads
1 MaxiJet 400 pointed at the surface.
1 Aquaticlife Internal Protein skimmer
1 Aquaclear 50 filter (running phosphate reducer and carbon)
1 small 40 GPH pump running my 1/2 gallon HOB Refugium (refugium is still waiting on macro algae, only has rock and sand right now)

Stock:
1 Percula clownfish
1 Firefish Goby
1 Peppermint Shrimp
1 Cleaner Shrimp
Approx 10 snails(mostly margaritas and astreas) and 10 crabs (blue and red legged)
We feed twice a day only what the fish can consume in a matter of minutes.

This tank has been set up for about 2 months now. I've read about alage stages that new tanks go through. Can anybody tell me what these stages are and when they usually occur in the life cycle of the tank? Also, what type of algae is this and what can I do to prevent it? What type of food do you feed your fish? Will getting Chaeto algae in my refugium help?
 
Well, found out some information online. Looks like it is probably the tap water. Our water out of the tap here I though twas fine because it has no nitrates or phosphates but that's not always what causes the algae. We are going to use RO water from our LFS from now on because we rent and cant really install an RO/DI unit. Plus our tank is small enough tat we can get buy with 5 gal buckets every 2 weeks for water changes. Hopefully that will solve that problem for us.
 
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