New to Nano's and needing a Little Help

[cj52racers]

Ok, so right now I have a well established (6 year old) 75 gal. tank. I have decided I would love to start a small nano, either a 5,8, or 10-14 gallon. I would just like to keep small corals, and maybe a watchman, pistol shrimp combo.
Heres where I need the help, I was only twelve when we set up the 75 gallon so I need help with setting up the nano and what tank to use (biocube, jbj nano cube, etc.). Now, if I use a bit of live rock and the sand and water from the 75 gallon, will this be a good start on cycling, and how long does this generally take? Anyway, thank you so much for your help, and a timeline on what to add when would be awesome.
I know all about the ammonia spike and the nitrite and nitrate issues, I was just wondering if starting with already established materials helped. Thank you for the help....

 

[mkzimms]

starting with established materials will definitely be beneficial as long as what you have in your other tank is of good quality. your cycle should be minimal a few days, but if you add uncured rock or rock that has had a dieoff you will go through another mini cycle but not as substantial as starting from scratch.
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we've been going over some nano questions over in this thread... stocking, differences in tanks, issues...
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/313662/12-gallon-aquapod-questions

 

[cj52racers]

Originally Posted by mkzimms
http:///forum/post/2553158
starting with established materials will definitely be beneficial as long as what you have in your other tank is of good quality. your cycle should be minimal a few days, but if you add uncured rock or rock that has had a dieoff you will go through another mini cycle but not as substantial as starting from scratch.
--
we've been going over some nano questions over in this thread... stocking, differences in tanks, issues...
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/showthread.php?t=313662
Thank you very much. Yeah, I think I will use all materials from the established tank. I just tested and everything looks pretty good. I will head over to that forum, and anyone else who can help out or just give opinions would be great.