What am I doing wrong??

Im new to the hobby.
I bought a 13g tank and I started with the "live" sand.I bought some rocks in my local store and then I picked up some in my recent trip to Puerto Rico and I shipped them overnight.I was very happy to see some live creatures in them when I got them and put them in water. My husband did a water change and I think he killed everything because he used TWice the recomended Salt( instant Ocean)

I have my tank in the garage and I am curing the rock.After two weeks the amonia is only down to 0.1 and I started to see some brown alge on the rock and the sand.I have the filter running and added the protein skimmer,sea clone ( i don't see any bubbles in the collection cup)

My plan is to cure the rocks and upgrade to a 30g or more tank and maybe use the 13g as a sump??
What am i doing wrong? I'm loosing hope;I don't think i'll ever be ready for my first fish

 

brown stuff is diatoms which means your tank is cycling/newly cycled

 

first of all you need either a refractometer or a hydrometer(cheaper), to check your salinity. Do not simply follow the instruction on the bucket.

 

+1 with the refractometer

 

I do have a hydrometer, and it wa within normal limits ...until my husband messed it up. It is back to 1.023

 

ok algae is normal.

next up seaclone, probably one of the worst skimmers on the market I have only heard of two people ever getting it to actually work.

 

I would say my best recommendation is to purchase the book; The Conscientious Aquarist, by Robert Fenner. Pretty much everything is covered in his book.

 

I have a Seaclone, and your right it does suck or at least it did. I modded it and now it usually pulls dark skimmate. I got it second hand really cheap so I made do with it.