Cycle question

[AStarWithin]

I just recently purchased two live rocks from a neighbor... Will I still have to cycle my tank? I don't imagine there will be a whole lot of die off, since I am traveling like 2 minutes down the road. I have already added 20 lbs of livesand to my 10 gallon.

 

Also, is nutrafin cycle ok to use?

[Korbin]

Don't use chemicals to cycle your tank. They're worthless. Afterall, you are cycling your tank so that it will handle bioload naturally. Let it acclimate naturally.

 

Next, make sure that your neighbor's liverock was not exposed to any copper-based medications.

 

And yes, you will get a cycle. Every surface area will develop a biolfilm. The sand, glass, powerheads... The biofilm is composed of bacteria which will grow and die off until it stabilizes. Your cycle will be much shorter and less tramatic than adding stinky uncured rock. It might be undetectable.

 

Remember to take it slow, regardless.

[just_got_tanked]

If you want to cycle your tank get a raw shrimp from a grocery store. This will cycle your tank. Also you will need to put the shrimp in a mesh bagging so it doesnt get all over the place.

[Korbin]

IMO - use dead shrimp to cycle if you plan on keeping dead shrimp.

 

But everyone does it differently. Nothing bad ever came from taking things slowly though.

[mattie]

no matter what the tank will cycle but using good lr from a freinds tank will speed up the process and you shoudl get a hand ful of sand from your friend to seed the bottom of your tank as well:)

there is no such thing as turbo cycle

cycleing a tank take 4-6 weeks

using live sand and lr may shorten this time but nothing good comes from trying to go fast in a nano

[AStarWithin]

I have about 20 pounds of LS on the bottom

[just_got_tanked]

I am cycling my tank I have used 12 pounds of sand and and 2 pounds of live rock. I also used the shrimp in the tank. I will add more live rock to the tank this weekend. Im not trying to speed the cycle up. I want to throw a hard cycle on the tank.