Good, algae, or worse??

[kobustabus]

So I am cycling my first saltwater tank... going for a reef aquarium but taking my time. I have 25lbs of live rock and 20 lbs of live sand. The tank has been cycling for about 10 days and my parameters are moving along (0 ammonia, 1ppm nitrite, 20ppm nitrate). This past weekend, I had an explosion of life... mostly in the form of brown algae on the sand which is now starting to form on the rocks. Along with this, I have some new life... and the following pics I am hoping show what I am talking about. I will let the pics do the talking because me describing it may not help the situation. Thanks for any Leo you can offer. I am hoping it's not aptasia :(

[Dr.eclipse]

definitely not aptasia. i cant ID it 100% but i would say its not going to be a problem and will most likely disappear after your cycle.

[kobustabus]

And should be doing anything to try and control the brown algae (diatoms I believe)?? Thanks for all of your help!!!

[Dr.eclipse]

they will go away after the cycle as well.

[Incredible Corals]

Those rock looks great. Tons of life on it. The brown stuff are diatoms and the other stuff looks like some type of macro algae. Let it grow it if wants to and suck up phosphates. If you don't like the way it looks then just pull it out. IMHO I like the natural look.

 

The more and more I go snorkeling, I like to have more algae growing in the tank (free fish food).

[OldReefer]

You are going to get some sort of algea plague during your cycle so just relax and go with it. However, that little bit on the right that has sort of a tree-like appearance looks like bryopsis. If you got to pick your algea infestation that would not be the first choice. You may want to pluck that stuff out.