DJ404
Reefing newb
Your water is brown? or did you typo and mean sand?
No typo, water is brownish and murky, it seems to be clearing up i think but there is also brown algae on the sand and rocks. This is 0 TDS RO/DI I use as well.
Your water is brown? or did you typo and mean sand?
While your tanks cycling,leave the lights off completely.With spikes that high,you'll have some BAD algae problems.
I've gotta be honest, I've never read a thread of anybody having brown water...it's driving me crazy thinking about it...The brown sand is more than likely diatoms, but the water is a mystery to me...going back and reading through your thread again, the only thing that I can come up with is maybe it's the die off from the rock that you scrubbed and the powerhead is keeping it suspended in the water. That's all I can come up with, sorry I couldn't be of more help....
Maybe do a 10g water change and see if that clears it up a bit, and lowers your parameters.? Other than that, just be patient. My tank took 5 weeks to completely cycle.
I don't know if you saw Sen's post about the 3 articles, so I figured I'd pass along the link... The first article/first paragraph talks about doing water changes during a cycle.
https://www.livingreefs.com/3-great-articles-every-newb-should-read-t26698.html
I'm wondering...and this may sound super stupid, so I'm sorry if it does... But have you cleaned the glass lately? If there is film algae on the glass, that will make the water appear brown. Even though the water is just fine.