I have brown stuff, green stuff and weird stuff growing on my live rock. Pictures are posted in my photogallery. Any help would be appreciated.

Diatoms and algae, do you have a clean up crew?

Yup on the diatoms, the other appears to be a seaweed or saltwater grass.

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Nothing is in the tank but the rock, sand, and the stuff growing. Ammonia is still almost 1PPM. A cleanup crew can survive this?

So, good or bad? The diatoms is the brown stuff?

No they won't yet. Cut your lighting period by half. Wait a week a test again. Let's us know the the numbers.....you're well on the way!

how about use the led aquarium light?

okay. Should I be running the protein skimmer?

Not a reef tank. What would a led light gain me?

just look more beautiful.

I wouldn't throw inthe CUC just yet. Your cycle should last about 6 weeks. At which time, when the ammonia does not appear in your tests you can add them. The diatoms will go away by themselves. Run all your equipment, skimmer included during the cycling, stuff has to break in anyways. You can run a light if you wish, or not run a light, its not going to make any difference.

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I guess it is a good time to see if my DIY protein skimmer will work. Glad about the light. The tank looks unhappy when it is not lit up.

Yes, definately run your skimmer.

good good study

I have been running my skimmer. It is collecting gunk in the collection bowl but I think I have a leak because I am also getting gunk on the surface of the sump tank over the bioballs section.

I filled tank on the 13th of this month. No fish. Just Live rock and live sand.
Readings
9/19
salinity 1.020
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0PPM
Nitrite 0PPM
Nitrate 0PPM

9/20 Fed tank with 8 small cocktail shrimp

9-22

Salinity 1.020
PH 8.0
Ammonia 1PPM
Nitrite .25 PPM
Nitrate 5PPM

9-24
Salinity 1.021
PH 8.0
Ammonia .5PPM
Nitrite .25 PPM
Nitrate 5PPM

9-26
Salinity 1.021
PH 8.0
Ammonia .5PPM
Nitrite .25PPM
Nitrate 10PPM

9-30
Salinity 1.021
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0PPM
Nitrite 0PPM
Nitrate 5PPM

Looks like my tank has cycled or am I missing something? And now I have some red stuff showing up on my rock and on the sand.

Cyano Algae growing now. It does appear that your cycle is done. One fish at a time at first.
Reef Sources Features - Cyano-ra

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Okay. One fish at a time is going to be a problem. The nearest LFS is about 25 miles away and has a no guarantee that the fish will survive once it leaves their store. If it dies on the way home, tough luck.
The closest major LFS is in Houston and that is 75 miles one way for someone who does not drive. I can't ask someone to drive 150 miles to buy a $10 clownfish.
Online is another option, but shipping charges and minimum purchases mean that I have to add more than a single fish at a time.
2 clownfish and 2 damsels barely meet the minimum purchase at liveaquaria.com and then there is $35 shipping on top of that. And buying a $30 yellow tang, and paying an additional $35 shipping doessn't make sense either.
I fed the tank to circumvent this problem. The tank should be capable of supporting those five fish right now. So where am I wrong? And yes I know that replacing dead fish is more expensive, but if my tank can't support the fish now, I need to restart the nitrogen cycle with more cocktail shrimp than I used last time. My plan was to give it an ammonia load higher than it will encounter with the fish I intend to put in. So if 8 cocktail shrimp wasn't enough, maybe double that to 16?
Also I have an interesting something growing that I can't get a decent pic of. It seems to be growing from a 1/4 inch diameter, yellow colored base on the live rock. It is about 5/8 inch long, not quite clear, about 1/16th diameter and has a blunt tip. It has never retracted like the tube worms do when startled. I can't find anything like it on the internet.

Your growth sounds like a sponge. Your line of thought on the way you set up your tank makes sense. I'm not a chemist so the amount of shrimp you put in would not help me any. It sounds like you set it up so there is enough bacteria to support your fish.

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