Oh man. Now I have to give advice ( just joking ). I had mine with no substrate for about a year, then put in live sand. It was turning brown for a few months, then one day bam haven't had any color but white since, and that was six months ago. It's normal for awhile I guess. I'll tell you what I have.
90 gal reef
200lbs of live rock ( really big pieces )
1.5 inch sand bed
2-96 watt pc 10000k 9hrs 2-65 watt actinic 10hrs
magnum 350 pro canister filter ( never hooked up bio wheels )
prizm skimmer
purple tang, tomato clown, flame angel
lots of crabs, shrimp,and snails
bubble coral,mushroom rocks,leathers,star polyps,buttun polyps, a few other corals that I got from people that I don't know what they are.
I change 5 gallons a week with normal tap water and reef crystals
Once every two months I throw on the polishing filter in the magnum and blow the tank around with a powerhead to polish the water. I use polyfilter and a little bit of carbon in the filter that I change every two months.
Sounds like a lot of maintenance but i LOVE DOING IT.
Ebeckels. I wouldn't dare knock live sand on this forum. I would be running for my life