Many thanks for the posters who chimed in with their reassurances that what I'm encountering is normal. As mentioned previously, from my researching I had some idea of what was happening to the tank but there remained a grain of doubt. Your replies however have eased my mind.
As for the plans for my tank, I basically want to cultivate a few LPS' and maybe an Acro or two. The reason I've only got 25 lbs of live rock is because I purchased 30 lbs of base rock in hopes of seeding it with the LR but after buying the LR I realized I should have forgone the base rock altogether. And now I no longer have much real estate to add more LR. *shrugs*
I'd also like to keep a couple of fish that really appeal to me such as a Mandarin Dragonet and a Firefish but believe me I'm in no rush to introduce fish until the tank is Fit For Fish. I learned to master this urge by cutting my teeth on a FW aquarium last year.
As for the green hair algae I suspect I may have been instrumental in it's ferocious growth. Firstly, I haven't been using RO water. Rather I've been using Brita filtered tap water (I hope I don't get forum ostracized for admitting to this). Yes it's slower than watching grass grow but it was cheaper than a $300 RO system. I do plan on getting one down the road though. Secondly, I'm running my dual strip T5's for 12 hours. One bulb is a Giesemann 10,000 and the the other is a Giesemann Actinic. I have another 2 dual strips that I will use when I begin keeping corals. The only reason I've got the lights going was to keep the Coralline from withering. No direct sunlight shines onto the tank. Should I be using lights at all at this point?
Finally, I was going to keep some chaeto in my display tank until I finished building my sump/refug. Is this ill advised at this stage in my tanks cycle?
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