Water Changes?

[Shopping Girl]

I have just started cycling my 30g. tank for about 2-3 weeks. I have LS and a 5lb. live rock (not cured- in the process) in the tank along with 2 blue/green chormis. Today I have noticed some brown stuff on the top of the live rock and on parts of the sandbed.
1. What is this and is it normal?

2. I have not completed a water change yet - should I??
3. What type of tank cleaners would you recommend in such a small tank?

I bought the "starter kit tank" so honestly I am not sure of what I have. It is an eclipse tank with heater and filter/bio-wheel. My salinity keeps dropping to about 1.021 -
4. what do I do to get it up and keep it there?

 

[jhnrb]

WELCOME TO THE FORUM. Well we have a learning curve to tackle before recommendations can be of any real meaning, so, I would recommend you go to the helpful articles forum and on page one you see several articles labled beginners, and nebies etc. I would recommend you read them 1st and then continue with the other articles that are marked as sticky on page one. once done you can browse the rest of the articles and read those that sound of interenst to you. once done, you should have a crash course in saltwater and better be able to decide what you need to do. at that time if you still have questions post them in your thread here and i will try and help as i can. others will probably weigh in here also. good luck and welcome. the brown alagae is part of the cycle process of which you did not mention what your parameters are. too early for fish but since you haveum watch your water parameters. read the articles and then post back here.