I leave for work this morning and all is well in the aquarium. I notice a small bit of brown algae, but no big deal. I figure it's about time I'm starting to get something. It's been a little under a month since I started the saltwater tank. I underfeed them, if anything. I'm 'cooking' some live rock right now. I come back, and the entire reef sand is covered in diatom algae, the rocks are turning brown. It's a nightmare.

I also have a few aiptasia to take care of, but I can't borrow 'Joe's Juice' from Sergeant Major until he gets back from vacation. <_<

I have a turbo snail in there right now, but I say he's absolutely overloaded. I understand you go through a brown diatom algae outbreak, then green algae, and then you start growing the coraline algae.

Is there anything to cut down on this mess? Could I buy more turbo snails?

Well diatoms are perfectly normal for newly setup saltwater tanks and it should go away overtime. Diatoms usually appear at the end of a cycle or soon after. I would just wait it out. As far as killing Aptasia anemones you can also inject them with very hot to boiling water.

I got the same junk, I just shut of the lights for about a week and it's gone. my Mandrin Goby ate some of it and so did the lawnmower blenny