Brown diatom dust

[Myka]

Diatoms are the only algae you should be seeing during your cycling. If you're seeing it starting to turn green that is not good, and you should be taking steps to prevent this. Daily or twice daily turkey basting is a good idea. Replacing filter pads/socks everyday or every second day is a good plan. What type of filtration do you have? Socks? filter pads? Skimmer? Do you have a clean up crew in there yet? If so, what do you have?

As far as the sump goes, removal of the crushed coral is probably a good idea. I don't like to have rock, sand, or any substrate at all in my sumps.

Also, I prefer to keep lights off during the cycle. Once the cycle is over, I will slowly ramp up lights starting with just a couple hours a day. As soon as diatoms are seen I add some snails (not a load of them). I slowly ramp the light up by a couple hours a week, and ramp up the number of snails, keeping it all in balance as far as algae vs light vs snails. You might find turning the lights off for a week will help you out if it starts coming back.