cycling question

How much cured rock did you get, and how big is your tank. It will populate a bacteria culture; it's just a matter of how long it will take. Do you have a sand bottom or a bare bottom?

 

I don't know where you live, but if you let people know, you might be able to get someone to donate a cup of their substrate for you to seed your sand.

 

I see that is a live sand, so maybe you don't need to do that.

 

A cup of sand from a PEST/Disease free tank will help get everything going.

 

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think 5lbs of actual live rock will be enough to avoid waiting out a cycle in a 30g tank...(I assume the BRS rock was dry and not from an established tank?) There is too much surface area in your tank that doesn't have bacteria growing on it yet and its much better to go slow than to rush. Have you been testing for Ammonia, Nitrite, & Nitrate? You could add a lot more live rock to speed things up, or trigger the cycle with adding an ammonia source (ex: shrimp/food).

 

Sounds like a good plan to me. You still might want to seek out a cup of sand from a healthy reef to get a wider diversity of life going.

 

You sound like you're on the right track & I would still add the ammonia source too. I would also agree with what Jim said and add some sand from an existing tank if you know anyone that has some. You could ask Nick at Pet's Playhouse for some sand, or post in the CR thread and someone will probably give you some. (I would but I don't have any sand in my tank!)

 

Sounds like alot of work to me

1. Fish it...

2. Wait 2 days

3. Pour in turbo start..

4. DONE

Ive done it several times and works like a charm.. Just started a 140 gal reef tank and in 2 weeks i had coarline growing