Cloudy Water with brown dust

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I just recently switched my aquarium from freshwater to saltwater about 4
weeks ago. I currently have a wet/dry filter, heaters, seaclone 100 protein
skimmer, hydor koralia 2 power head, about 40 lbs live rock, and crushed
coral for substrate. during the first week I added nothing to the tank, in the
second week I added 4 turbo snails and a peppermint shrimp, in the third
week I added 3 green chromis, and in the fourth week I added a yellow tang
(to fight the growing hair algae... which worked wonders) and 10 more turbo
snails. In the past 3 days I have been monitoring my chemical levels and
currently here are the readings: ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0, temp 77, sp
gr. 1.025, and ph 8.4. I always use RO/DI water and have in the past week
noticed what I think are diatom algae bloom and very cloudy water. My
question is will the cloudy water and the brown/green dusty  algae go away?
and is this harmful to my fish?

Thank you

Adam

ANSWER: Hi Adam:  The algae is not harmful ... it is however unsightly.  How much light is your tank getting per day??? this is usually one of the causes of algae and especially an algae bloom. What kind of bulbs/watts are you running in the new tank... What size is your tank?   dave

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: It is a 55G long with 2 65w 12000k power compacts and 2 65w actinic bulbs. I
run the lights about 10 hours a day then turn on the 8 blue moon led lights. But
why is the water cloudy?

Answer
Hi Adam:  That is a lot of light... in fact that is enough light to run a reef tank.  You do not need this much light for a freshwater tank... this is precisely why you are having an algae bloom. The light for freshwater fish should be about 8-9 hours per day at this time of year.  The water is cloudy because of the formation of vegetal cells which then link to become algae.  You can use a biological water clarifier to help clear the water... but you are going to have to cut back on the light... One of those bulbs is still too much... I would look into a regular day light bulb for your tank.... dave