Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

Ages ago (Nov or Dec?) I got some Neon tetras from Walmart... in REALLY tough shape.  I got them all nursed back to health added 6 more to bring the numbers up to a dozen and kept them alone except with a pleco.  I put Bart in there when I got him, everything was PERFECT.
A couple of weeks ago I got that 20 long.  I moved the gravel, filter, decorations and neons and Bart over to it, and all was well.  Water parameters were great, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20 nitrates.  Seems pretty good, huh?
Well, Saturday night I noticed ICH on two of the neons.  What in the world started that is beyond me, EXCEPT I was using a sponge filter and had noticed the circulation wasn't too great since that is a pretty long tank.  I also noticed an outbreak of brown algae starting.
I have treated them twice with Quick rid, and spots are already gone, and I also treated with stress guard and added a HOB filter.
I am feeling okay about this, everyone looks fine except the pleco is a bit quiet tonight.  
BUT...I have noticed that each time I start up a new tank, even with using plenty of recycled media, after about three weeks I end up getting a sudden growth of algae, (usually brownish), on all the plants and decorations and even on the glass.  It lasts about a week, and then is gone with nothing done on my part except using my magnet on the glass and rinsing off the plants during a 23 - 30% water change.  
In both the last two tanks I have set up this is when the ich started.  My question is what can I do to avoid this brown algae happening??  From my reading, it is not terribly unusual for brown algae to occur in a newer tank.   To me it suggests that the tank wasn't really cycled but I am using plenty of bacteria saturated media from the other tanks.  I never see any ammonia nor nitrites on my testing, and I test three times a week with a newly set up tank.  I perhaps did put too many fish at once in the 40 gallon, but this tank only had the same fish that were in the 10 gallon I replaced with the 20.    
When do I get to the point when I can just feed the fish and relax and watch them???????

When you stop setting up new tanks you might get lucky till then probably no relaxing.
If it helps you are not the only one with these kinds of problems.

I have to agree. Any problems we have had have occured within the first couple of months, or soon after adding new fish. This is why we have been considering trying to promote breeding with our egg layers - we don't want to disturb the peace going on in our tanks by adding anyone new! Our tanks are all established now, and I like knowing that they are comfy (makes me more comfy too). We have not added any new fish to any of our tanks - all consist of the originals (except for Callie, the panda cory - another story!). 

This is why I was so concerned about draining our tanks and moving them to lay the floors - I feel like big changes or interruptions can cause them stress (e.g. netting them, moving the tanks, adding new fish, etc.). So, when we moved their tanks, I was worried about disturbing the peace in their tanks (so far so good). 

As long as you are keeping the babies' home clean (which I know you are!), and you allow them to settle into a tank as their forever home, you should start seeing less issues and happy fishies...and then you will enjoy sitting back and relaxing - knowing all is well in their little world!

The brown algae are diatoms they always appeared for me in a new tank . The Brown diatoms appear when there is an abundance of silicates, usually from the sand or gravel, also silicone leaches allot when its new .

Diatoms are also an indication that you tank has completed its cycle, they usually go away after a few weeks .

Dirt guy...thank you!! I think it must be the silicone because I also started TWO other tanks a while back, both used, and didn't have any brown algae in either one. Makes sense as both these last two were new.