ok new update. I checked water parameters again tonight and they came back as follows: Ph 8.0, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, alkalinity 4.5, temp 81, salinity 1.023. I added a table shrimp tonight to try and get this cycle started. Its been 10 days with no ammonia spike at all. Im just trying to be as safe as possible so that when I do add fish and corals I am confident they will survive.