Brown hairy algae? good/bad?!?!

[BuGGaPimp5.0]

hey all.

My tank has been setup for about 1 month now. my specs are:

55 Gallon
Rio 2100 in wet/dry
wet dry with bio balls
additional power head
75lb Live Rock with lots of misc hitchhikers
3 bags of live sand (about 2 - 3" depth)

Inhabitants:
4 damsels
20 hermits
20 snails
1 clam

i have been watching my levels and all seems good. I have gotten my ammonia spikes as well as nitrate spikes and i did my water changes and it helped neutralize these guys.

Now i have noticed on my back wall and on my prefilter there has been a buildup of this brown looking algea. I noticed the fish peck at it, and the snails do kind of eat it too. also, there is a slight buildup on the top of my live sand in a certain area. My question is, what is this brown algea and is it bad? my live rock is starting to get covered in it as well, and it doesnt look too bad but i know there are such things as bad algea. thanks!

[gbolton]

Sounds kind of like diatoms. This should go away and is a natural part of the process. Be careful about nitrate levels with your wet dry filter as these have been known to cause high nitrate levels wich will feed your bad algeas.

[BuGGaPimp5.0]

cool thanks gbolton. should i be ok if i clean it off? it kind of looks ugly, or it will work itself out?????

[plantman1028]

if you clean it off,it will just end up settlig somewhere else.I had the same problem and added 6 nassarius snails.between them and my turbos the algae was GONE in a week.Hey,its part of nature.Isnt that why we all choose tho keep a slice of the ocean in our homes?Good luck...The snail work great

[BuGGaPimp5.0]

Originally posted by plantman1028
if you clean it off,it will just end up settlig somewhere else.I had the same problem and added 6 nassarius snails.between them and my turbos the algae was GONE in a week.Hey,its part of nature.Isnt that why we all choose tho keep a slice of the ocean in our homes?Good luck...The snail work great

thanks!!!