Live Rocks And Sand During Cycle??

[newsaltyman]

hi i was wondering while you cycle your tank...can you just do it with LR and LS alone....or will they die from no food source? Should i throw in a couple of damsels so they can produce the necessities for the LR AND LS to eat off...or do they not feed off anything at all? Im confused as you can see ....Tanks a bunch:

 

[wrassecal]

Yes you can do it. Cycle will depend on how much lr and ls you have and how big your tank is in comparison. There will be die off on/in the lr and the ls which will promote the cycle. Do a search on this board, there are many interesting answers to ways to cycle a tank. Just please do not cycle with live fish. As you read the threads you will see that "most" of us that went that way regretted it. Good luck

 

[nano reefin]

I agree, go fishless!

 

[kpogue]

I have 2 tanks a 30 & a 150. Both - I have used only LR & LS to cycle with. DO NOT skimp on the quality of either. With my 30 it only took 8 days to cycle (the rock was pretty much cured)My 150 took 4 weeks.

 

[tjkohler]

In my 10 gallon nano I put 15 lbs of LS and a raw grocery shrimp in the tank. One day later the amonia was at 0.5 and the nitrite was at 0.25. I then put in an 18 lb piece of cured Figi LR. The tank stayed at 0.5 for three days then went down to 0.1 amonia and nitrite. The next day they were at 0. For a total of 6 days.
On the fifth day I had pods running around and a couple other unidentified crustations that were about 1 centimeter long. I think that LS and LR is great for cycling your tank as long as it's cured. Cured is good too, it will just stink and take longer to cycle.

 

[saltyman]

Saltyman and NEWsaltyman...What a small world