crazy cycle

[amadent]

I hope you guys (and gals ) can help my tank out. 72 bow. cascade canister,315 gph , powerhead 400gph. 40 lbs live sand, 40 lbs sand, 40 lbs live rock cured, 20 lbs semi cured rock, and 5 damsels. I don't have my ro water set up yet.
temp = 79.8
phosphate= 1.5 mg/l
ph = 7.8
ammonia nh3-n = < 0.25
nitrite = 3.0 ppm mg/l
nitrate = 10 ppm mg/l
The tank was filled with salt water on 10/22. live sand and regular sand 10/24. live rock fully cured 10/26 and semi cured rock on 10/28 along with five damsels. The damsels were my lfg idea. I have not yet seen any movement in the ammonia count, but the nitrates and phosphates are moving up. I have only given the damsels flakes for three days. My lights are on for nine hours a day. It is a 4x65 cf . The other half of my question is it seems as if a couple of the semi cured rocks are turning brown. :help: What to do? I am enclosing two picks of the tank. One of the showing the brown starting.

 

[jesses89]

the brown is diatoms, happens to all new tanks, it will eventually go away on its own.

 

[rbrockm1]

the phos wont go away unless you get rid of it yourself. there are a lot of things out there to get rid of it. any phos in your water will cause algea blooms. Us RO as soon as possible. as for the brown stuff snails will help greatly.

 

[amadent]

will the diatoms indicate rhw cycle progressing? I thought that the ammonia was supposed to rise before the nitrites!!!!!!!!!!!!!!