Quote:
Originally Posted by Madreefer
Your tank is not near ready. Any reputable store would never suggest what you were told. I wouldnt go back. Go get yourself some test kits and start doing alot of research. IME royal grammas are too aggressive and a 10g is too small for a pair of clowns. There's a fair amount of newbies that read alot and like to give advice. Most of it is wrong so try to take advice with those who have actual experience in the hobby.
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Assuming you bought rock from a store, this is very good advice. Even if you bought the system used and simply did a transfer to your home, there is no way your tank is ready for inhabitants the very next day. The person that told you that has limited experience and/or understanding of the nitrogen cycle. I agree that a Royal Gramma is likely to get too aggressive in a 10-gallon tank. Someone suggested Gobies, which would be a great option. Some Gobies pair up with Pistol Shrimp and make a very interesting display. Do a Google search for "shrimp gobies". All of the ones with reasonable price tags are easy to care for - just make sure they are eating before you buy them.
You will need an ammonia test kit and a nitrate test kit at the very minimum. If you want to keep costs down, API makes a reasonably accurate test kit for both of these. If you stick to soft corals you don't
need other test kits, but monthly testing at an LFS for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium is a good idea. If you buy hard corals you should probably buy cal, alk, mg kits for yourself (Elos, Hanna, and Salifert are all ok. API not so much).
That aside, you need to monitor ammonia for the next week at least. If there is absolutely NO ammonia showing up then the rock was cured (cycled). Likely, there will be some die-off even in a tank transfer if the rock was exposed to air at any point for longer than a few minutes.
Please take a read through the link in my signature about curing live rock.