Stay the course?

[pokerfish]

Been over 15 years since I cycled a tank, but after losing my tank to flood last year I'm finally getting my reef back.
Mixed new water ( Quincy tap water). new sand (petco. not livesand) and rock that sat dry in a rubbermaid tub for a year.
Ran it for a week added bottled bacteria daily and put in 3 green chromis and kept an eye on parameters. After a few weeks ammonia and nitrites went 0 and got a 10 reading on nitrates. Fish are doing great and all looks well. Running Chinese LED fixture for 11hours ( 7 full spectrum and 4 on sun rise sunset cycle).
Right on cue BOOM! Diatom bloom. Looks like water is boiling. Rust dust everywhere. cut back on lights, did 20% water change (RODI) .Yesterday picked up some GFO and a reactor( figuring tap water was prob a mistake) . Also added 50 crabs and 50 snail package from saltwater.com.
Looked a little better today with snails and crabs leaving ski trails and blew off a the rust and ran my trusty magnum HOB with micron filter ( for a few hours) to try to remove some of the dust. Looks good tonight and not nearly as many bubbles rising from the sand and rock.
Question. Stay the course? Let the GFO and crew do their thing? Water is still not crystal clear and wondering if I should run some carbon or purigen but my nature is to let things settle as I suspect this is all pretty normal.
My skimmer is tough to dial in but I'm getting some stuff out in the cup. Should I be cutting the lights? Adding a Gobie? ( i want one) or just riding the bloom out.
I forgot how this goes in the beginning cause its been so long. Should I be trying to prevent this bloom or embracing it?

 

[20gReef]

IMO most get the diatoms as part of the "new tank syndrome" especially using tap water. Its generally accepted that RO/DI unit should be used in most cases.
I don't know the size of your tank but a new tank with 50 grabs and 50 snails is probably in the overkill range and some will soon die as they run out of food, especially being a new system. (those huge packs of cleaners are just a gimmick to get people buying more than they need.)
I would say stay the course letting it run it's course and look into RODI unit

 

[Aquatic Nerd]

IMO most get the diatoms as part of the "new tank syndrome" especially using tap water. Its generally accepted that RO/DI unit should be used in most cases.
I don't know the size of your tank but a new tank with 50 grabs and 50 snails is probably in the overkill range and some will soon die as they run out of food, especially being a new system. (those huge packs of cleaners are just a gimmick to get people buying more than they need.)
I would say stay the course letting it run it's course and look into RODI unit

I'd say 99% of people get diatoms.
I usually just let them starve themselves out and you're good to go. I'd wait to water change until after the diatoms dissipate

 

[pokerfish]

Thanks. Appreciate opinions. I do have an RODI filter. I just hadn’t unpacked it and get frustrated with it, but I used it for water change and it’s testing 0 tds so I’m good to go.
It’s a 54 corner so yeah, the cleanup crew is prob overkill. I’m considering a blue spot or Valentini puffer so they may cull the herd ( hopefully not but I know I’m gambling).
My tap water is 140 tds so between new tank syndrome and phosphates etc in water it all makes sense. Do you use activated carbon in sump? Is there any harm to running that with gfo?


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[20gReef]

I've always had 2 reactors set up running both. Carbon to clean the water in one and GFO doing it's thing in the other. Some even do it in the same reactor but the GFO is less effective in a tighter packed reactor so the carbon doesn't break down.