Oh okay I believe I understand what you’re saying. Kinda weird and crazy! I will be sure to do a good siphon when I do my weekly cleanings and you suggest changing water weekly? I had just did what the biocube manual had talked about with weekly cleaning and monthly water changes, but I should do that more frequently? Is this because we’re trying to get rid of all the icky stuff right now or is that how I should always be doing it?The rocks have been recently unplugged. They’re expressing waste that was pent up, and daily they express waste castings on top of that old material slough and when that sinks downs and combines with bright lighting, growback begins using that waste as growth substrate. Additional loosened castings from the initial rock cleaning will come off, be siphoning that layer of sand out with routine weekly water changes. Allow no regrowth, no waste layer to build up this is just the first guiding gardening of many as the system is guided back into compliance.
When you rinse off that taken section of sand just put it back in the tank, free of those diatoms/algae complexes forming on the sand, also be lifting out your live rocks in rotation, look for forming algae tufts if any, swish twist them in saltwater before setting back in the tank. That stuff you’re seeing is new plaque stains forming in the reef mouth, they should be cleaned out.
Those are just the regrowths we were aiming to lessen with lower light levels overall and almost no white spectrum running, just blues ideally.
As you hand guide and remove these catch up growths a new routine for keeping the tank spotless develops, and it can’t ever get invaded again. We make changes to the reef setup that reduce your follow up work, but follow up work is the final say in keeping the reef looking new.
I’ve been using the boxed water since that is all I know, but with this many water changes, should I look into the ones you mix yourself? Just out of curiosity because I’ve seen those and they intimidate me, but they might be more cost affective?
Also, are you saying I should make some adjustments to the lighting? Or just keep going as I have been and keeping an eye on it? And if I do see algae on the rock, should I remove the rock and attempt to clean it up again?
Sorry for all of the questions but thank you so so much for helping me out!