1.Do NOT add fish to your tank! That is NOT the RIGHT way to cycle the tank!
2.Stop opening new HELP threads...you have about 20 in 20 days!!!!! get a book and re-read the other threads, where everyone tells you to...
3.SLOW DOWN, you're not listening, and need to do your research BEFORE you do anything else.
Your answer is above - read it again and listen to what you are being told.
You are rushing things and making yourself nuts over cycling this tank.
You will NOT know what your SG is until you go out and buy a
REFRACTOMETER. Adding 3 cups of higher sg water to a 10g tank won't make much of a dent in the SG. No point in trying to make it higher as you DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS TO START WITH (yes, I was yelling that part...
)
The best thing for your tank right now is to leave it alone, stop trying to mess with the sg. You are better off buying a GOOD reefing book and spending your time reading it while your tank cycles. You will NOT find that book on the internet unless you are looking at Amazon.com and sending them money....
The higher SG water you added will look slightly cloudy, plain & simple thats how it will always look when you add sw to a sw tank...it kind of swirls around as it mixes in. Accept it. Higher sg water - especially when you do not let the salt totally dissolve (easy 24 hours to do this) usually looks cloudy. It will melt in time. (do NOT
EVER do this move when you have live animals or corals in the tank!) It ONLY doesn't matter now because you only have rocks & sand in there. I sincerely doubt it will affect your cycling. 'Winging' it (your term)- is NOT the way to add salt to water!
Stop having panic attacks over the soap on your hands..we ALL wash our hands here, and dry 'em off on all sorts of things..napkins, paper towels, towels and I'm sure some dry them off on their pants..we aren't all killing our tanks cause our hands smell clean. Just rinse them well and move on from there.
In parting..whether your sg is 1.021 or 1.026 when you go to sleep tonight, it makes no difference. The tank has no critters in it yet (good.) and whatever might be alive in the sand can deal with EITHER SG, but what thery CANNOT deal with is the rollercoaster ride you are taking them on by trying to change the SG without the proper tool (a refractometer).
(and before I get an earful from the people who have no issues with hydrometers..the one this noob has is 2 years old and we do not know - nor do I want to debate - what kind of shape the thing is in..Let's just all agree that he needs to replace it and in doing so, he may as well spend the $35 and get a refractometer...thx)
