brown stringy algae

[fishwater]

My tank has been set up for about 4 weeks with 30 pounds live rock and 20 pounds live sand. My algae bloom started about a week ago. Now I have a brownish/ dark green string algae growing on some of the rocks.
It almost looks like cotton candy or a hair ball of really small hairs. Is this normal and will my hermit crabs and snails eat it or do I need to get something else? I have looked for pics on the internet, but can't find anything that looks like it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[getfooled]

Thats pretty typical for a new tank i used ro/di water and cycled for 3 months. Cutting back the lights to 3 hrs helped me. Once your tank has completely cycled then you can get yourself a cleaning crew, at least that is what i did and it worked for me. Cutting back the light made the greatest while cycling.