Help?

I have some type of algae growing on my live rock, is it bad stuff or is it supposed to be there. I am new to this. My tank will be 1 month old on Wednesday and I will do its first water change tomorrow. I got the live rock and water from local pet store. You can really see it on the top left on the white rock and the purple one doesnt have as much it started about 5 days ago. I have 2 clowns 1 dottyback and 2 really small cleaner snails if its any help, any info will help a lot.

 

From what I can see its normal and your tank is going to have different stages of algea blooms being so new. Mines 6 months old and just now at the end of my algae/cyano blooms. Take it slow and keep up on water changes using ro/di water and you should be fine. What type of lights do you have? Is there any fish or coral in the tank?

 

2 clowns 1 dottyback, I did have 2 24" T8-18watt Marineland Natural Daylight but 6 days ago changed it to one 17watt Coralife 50/50

 

I see a lot of sponge growth, that is fine.

Blow the rocks off with a turkey baster or similar and see if that is just settle detritus in some places.

 

Yep, sponges. Harmless filter-feeders. Most will probably die off as your tank matures, but in the meantime, they're taking up nutrients that would otherwise fuel algae growth.

BTW, your standard output T8s will only be good for a FO tank. If you plan on housing corals, nems, etc., you'll need T5HO, MH, or LED.

 

Do you recommend me getting another fish, I am looking to get a red firefish and another snail and crab for cleaning.

 

I'd suggest a couple of Emerald Crabs or a half dozen or so Blue-Leg Hermits over snails. Snails tend to target specific types of algae and will starve if there's not enough growth to sustain them. OTOH, crabs and hermits will also eat all types of leftover food items and are easy to target-feed if necessary.

As for the fish, one should be fine if it's been longer than a week since your last addition.