Hello r/ReefTank!

I've recently ended up with a little 24 gallon BioCube thanks to a friend of a friend after they installed a second 180gal setup. I've had freshwater tanks before, but this is my first foray into saltwater. It's been cycling a bit now (though I may have cheated a bit and used water and bio filter media from said friend's established tank).

I have: - 24gal BioCube

• A Current-USA LED fixture with timer (older model, still works, one dead LED)

• Live sand

• Live rock

• Return pump that came with the system (not very strong)

• Various snails, and a sand-sifting conch

• YCTECH Aquarium Wave Maker Pump - pointed to the back and upwards from about mid-tank (it kept moving all the sand to one side, so it's now pointed up) - LFS said any flow is better than no flow during this period of time, and to worry about the right flow once I'm looking into adding livestock, so it's a placeholder.

Here's what's happened: My ammonia/nitrites leveled off, nitrates went up as expected, and started getting some algae growing. LFS confirms my numbers are good and it's time to add some critters.

I introduced 4 snails. 2 days later: algae madness. Introduced another 8 per LFS recommendation. They seemed to be enjoying themselves eating everything. Added the conch (and now one of the OG snails just lives on his back, it's adorable).

Now 3/5 of my live rocks have changed white. They don't have any sort of film on them or anything, they've simply lost their color. They were reddish and faded purple with some green patches before.

At first I thought that the snails had just eaten all of the stuff off of them, until I learned that turning white can signify different problems in the tank. One of which being no/low flow.

Realizing I only had the return pump, I added the YCTECH pump in. It's been three days now, and no noticeable difference in the live rock. I have noticed the snails are less active since introducing the new pump. They still move around, and are still eating, but they used to truck around all day and night.

I've got KH/GH tests coming in today, as I read that calcium issues can also turn rocks white, so I will be able to update as I find out.

So I'm hoping to find out if things are progressing properly, or maybe I'm overly worried about the whitening of the rocks. Or that it's all going terribly wrong so that I can fix it!

I don't have grand plans for this tank or anything. I'd like to in time get a rock flower anemone or two, a lettuce seaslug, and maybe a platinum clownfish (My heart is not set on a particular fish). Corals could be nice in time, but I'd be happy as could be with just the above for this tank.

Here are some before and after pics (best I could do with the lighting). The front and top rocks are really really faded white now. It's definitely more obvious in person.:

https://imgur.com/a/dpIc9BU