10 gallon help

Hello all!

About a week or two ago i setup my first saltwater nano.
I have an 10 Lbs LS and 8 Lbs LR
After a few days of letting it settle i threw in some ghost shrimp to help with the cycle, started feeding and added a few ounces of BIO-Spira to boost.

But i'm afraid it's not doing much or am i wrong?
I heard BIO-Spira instantly cycles the tank and you can add fish immediately(not going to nor was that my intention)
So far the Ghost shrimp have survived and are doing well hiding in the reef saver rock.

Here are my results:
Salinity, using a float hydro and dip hydro both say 1.023
pH 8.0-8.1
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrate 5-10
dKh- Unknown
Calcium - Unknown

My eyes suck i wish i could use a digital reader for all of this lol

How do my reading sound? I know not to rush the process and i am not hardly new to the hobby what-so-ever, But saltwater has been a dream of mine and finally had the time to try it.

 

I believe you should be on track since you used the bio spira stuff. Ive never used it, but it should help with quickly cycling the tank. I would wait a couple of days, check the nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia again. If those are still good then it sounds like your cycle has finished.

 

Welcome to 3reef and the SW journey.

Sounds good.

Your post indicates that you're going the slow and steady route which is fantastic.

Smaller tanks are tricky to initially cycle so just keep testing, stock slowly and do small water changes as indicated.

 

Ok thank you both very much.

So if my levels continue to be the same across the board i should be ready to go?

Just making sure i really don't want to go too fast and wind up in a bind.
I want to make sure everything goes slow and steady.

 

Perhaps consider challenging the tank by ghost feeding a small amount of fish food for a day or so and retest for ammonia. If the biological filter is efficient enough to handle a day or two of ghost feeding you can probably add one fish.

Small water changes of maybe a gallon is a good idea. Watch your SG as evaporation and topping off with FW is extremely important. An open top 10 gallon looses a lot of water. If you do not have a ATO, you will probably have to top off everyday. I have a 28 gallon with lid and I have to top off daily to keep an SG of 1.026.

 

There is a top on the tank so far over the course of initial setup evap has been little to none maybe the most being 5/16 of an inch of evap. Funny you should say ghost feeding since i have been doing that plus there is ghost shrimp already in the tank lol

But during the coming warmer months i will need to DIY an ATO.