Thanks for the advice BCOrchidGuy!
I didnt know about the chemicals sticky, it IS really useful.
I haven't gotten any test kits for alk or calcium, but the pH did manage to hit 8.5 which is nice.
Now for the bad news. I now have a small outbreak of Green Hair Algae in the tank. I caught it early enough so I am working with it now. Because I have no fish or snails or anything in the tank, I am simply performing regular water changes with store bought R.O water (to keep the phosphates down) and I have disabled my lights. I figure if there is no light for about a week, the GHA can't spread much more and if there are no phosphates to feed on then all the better.
All of my tests for pH, Amonia, Nitrate/Nitrite and Salinity are in the safe areas. I am going to introduce some herbivorous snails in a couple days. They should be able to eat at whatever GHA is left and I will slowly increase my photoperiod over the next week or so. If anyone can recommend a type of snail for this purpose I would really appreciate it.
I hear Turbo snails are good for this but I am not certain.
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