Help brown stuff all over my tank!

[spencka]

I have brown stuff all over my 55 gal. tank! My guess is some kind of algae?? The little bit of lighting I've done, leads me to believe it might be a "diatom bloom"? But I'm only guessing.
My water is perfect. I tested myself, and to confirm I took a sample to my LFS. Other than SG being a little low 1.023, all other parameters were great.
My 65 lbs. LR was purchased from this site, and had been looking good, but is now "browning" as well - and is just ugly.
My 60 lbs. of LS was three 20lb. bags of LS (Aragonite) - no play sand, beach sand or anything else.
I also have a clean-up crew, also purchased from this site and one Coral Beauty Angelfish, which is doing well, but I've only had him since Sunday.
In an earlier post, written a few days ago, I swore that something was eating my LR. I now suspect it was this brown stuff. It's on the LS, LR, tops of the Power heads, and the HOB overflow basin.
Now the lights - which I believe is causing the problem - I have PC & Actinic lights. I turn them on at 5:00am, and turn them off at 10:00pm. That's 17 hours!
Now the questions!
Do you think I'm correct in my hunch about the lights?
Any other thoughts?
Finally, how do I get rid of this stuff and keep it OUT???
Thanks!
Steve

 

[wax32]

It's diatoms, it's natural and means your tank is normal for its age. It will go away soon. Cut your lights back to 12 hours. It's a little early for the angel. I hope it is eating prepared food, since they normally pick at micro-algae on your rocks for a lot of their food.

 

[sudn rsh]

I am just a newbie on here but it sounds like your right it is diatom and from what i have learned on here that is way too long for the light seems most people say it sould be like 8-10 hrs or less and you should check your phosphate. i had diatom and i bought some phosban and it cleaered up ALL my diatom in a couple weeks
Nathan

 

[spencka]

OK, so it'll go away soon, but what does that mean? Will all the brown stuff just suddenly disappear, do I actually need to clean stuff (LR, LS, power heads, etc.). If the answer is to clean - exactly how do I clean the LR & LS?
Thanks!