Hi guys, i appologise but this is a long story. I have a few questions about how exactly my sump should be setup. I thank you in advance to those who always help me as a newbi to reefing, you are very kind to help as im sure ur asked these things over and over again. Anyway, i have a 3 chamber, 2ft sump under my 4ft DT. Its only a FOWLR tank currently but i want to put corals in when everything tests well. I have around 35-40 kg of live rock, 1 pyjama cardinal, 2 small clowns, a blue tang and a small cleanup crew, ( 1 hermit, 2 conch snails, 1 abalone, 1 nassarius snail, 1 sand sifter starfish and a couple of turbos. This tank was previously set up before i got it but was in serious need of help. Salinity would not even read on the meter as they were topping it up with just saltwater. Clowns came with the tank and somehow survived. I fixed salinity, slowly replaced the live rock 1 peice at a time with cured live rock from my LFS and cleaned all equipment and replaced the plumbing .It has been set up now for about 2 months with the new live rock. Salinity tests fine now but No3 is testing quite high. About a week ago i had an outbreak of algae on a few bits of live rock but that has almost gone completely now. I keep getting alot of brown build up on my glass and on my rocks etc. I removed a gross looking rock from my sump yesterday too, it looked dirty compared to all my other rocks so i thought it may be the source.(see pic below of suspect rock).
See photos below for sump setup and brown film buildup.
Is this from the sump?
Should i remove the filter pads in my sump?
Should i put the skimmer inside the second chamber?
Do i need a filter sock?
Do i need more flow in the sump?
Why does the brown film algae keep building up so quick on the glass?
Is my tank still cycling?
I am patient but can i speed up the process?
Should i have cheato in there too?
Thanks so much again to anyone who can help.