Cycling a partially established tank?

[Sludgysnail]

Monday i bought a 10 gallon aio tank from someone on a fb group locally. He had drained it the day before but left enough water to cover the sand and the rocks were still wet when I got it. I bought saltwater from my lfs on Monday to fill it. It had major algae on the glass. I've cleaned most of that and skimmed most out with a net. I've got testing kits and a few Hanna checkers I bought previously. This is my first saltwater setup, and I'm not sure what I should do at this point.

Edit: It had several pods in it and there are several that have survived, so I guess I am sustaining life in it in some capacity lol.

 

[Spare time]

I would check to make sure that you don't have any ammonia (and nitrite).

 

[Uncle99]

Add some ammonia and see if it zeroes out.
Check for nitrite and see zero out.
50% water change.
Ready for a fish or two

 

[DanConnor]

The solution to most problems you will find from testing is water changes. In a 10 gallon tank, its such a small volume you can just do water changes

 

[Sludgysnail]

Sounds good, I'll check ammonia tomorrow. I'm in no rush to add livestock at this point. I think I'd like to add a little more rock to it. I guess I probably should have done my rockscape before adding water but I didn't wanted the sand and rock drying out.