Drew,
I tested out my water, no phospates, that being said Ive been using tap the whole time without problems. If I had phosphates in my tap I would maybe consider the RO, but without them, I'm not wasting money/time on the RO water Your using the RO water and not getting rid of the Brown stuff confirms that you don't neccessarily get rid of algae by going to RO water especially in a young tank. Seriously, I know everybody hypes up the RO water on the board, but I would bring your tap water to a LFS and have them check it out. If your not seeing phosphates in the water I wouldn't spend the extra money and time to do the RO water...There are many other things to be concerned with than RO water, IMO. Like getting a good skimmer, getting good water flow, making sure you have the right number of cleanup crew members. Once you get those right, you'll want the brown stuff. I got mine under control and now I'm looking for more algae to feed these guys and I don't even have any algae sucking fish at this point...
That being said, Turbo snails work the best on the glass and will work on the rock. Hermits and Emerald crabs for the sand. The Emeralds are PIGS, so get 2 of those in there to help cleanup your tank...