canister reactor

i have a canister filter for my 55g tank rated for a 75g tank. since being new to the hobby im getting brown crap all over the place in my tank. dont knoe if its because i dont cleant the filter like i should or what. rwo things i would loe to know is how often am i suppose to clean and replace components inside my cannister. second question is the reactor. i have 6 spaces to put what ever i want in it. thinking 2 of them would be carbon but what of the other 4? i have a fuvul and think i could add more things to help my fish and corals but dont know what. im looking for names that i could go to the lfs and say i want this. was funning is all preams are on the money cept this brown stuff floatevery where.

 

How old is the tank? What kind of bioload is in the tank? If there's fish how often do you feed them?
Common sight of diatoms (brown algae) is in nutrient rich water or new tanks if it's a new tank this is the cycling process and it's natural. In time it will go away or you can softly scrub it away with a new cheap tooth brush.
As for the canister filter I'd recomend some carbon, filter pads, and ceramic rings. Clean the filter at least once a month best is twice or more depending onhow often you want too and how heavy the bio load is. You can rinse off filter pads and use them again but they will clog up faster then before carbon replacement depends upon the bioload and howling is recomended before changing it.

 

the tank is about 6 months old and the bio load id like to say is high but have inverts to help with that. feeding almost eveyday day of some sort it being frozen or pellets/flakes. most of the fis are herbs so i do tend add algae to feed. have corals that need the poop to help grow. i do plan on tanking some of the 5$ fish out and put into anothe tank to help with everything. this hasnt happen tils i started adding need fish thinking thinking the size of them really wont effect my tank.

 

Try feeding everyother day a high bioload will produice more ammonia which is broken down in to nitrites then in to nitrates which is a componet algae feed on. Adding new fish cause a very small addition of ammonia which causes more nitrates in a short burst of time so there's more nitrate food for algae

 

i just read a tread all about sumps and the were talking about a cannister reactor. i have 6 spots 3 carbon and 3 for cermaic tubes. what of the filter media? leave them in or put other things in ther like LR, bio balls?