Cycle Questions!!

[InADream]

This weekend I will be assembling my 90 gallon tank. I am buying it from a member in my area. I will be using 100 gallons of new water, and about 100 lbs of rock. There is probably 35 lbs of dry rock and 65 lbs of rock that has been sitting in a barrel with a power head and full of saltwater.

I am also buying the members live sand that is currently in his tank. I will leave the sand in saltwater and stir it up and get any detritus filtered out before putting it in the tank.

My question is how much of a cycle should I expect to see? Since I am using his live sand that is 2 inches, will i have to seed the tank with some food or a piece of shrimp?

I would imagine it should be a quick cycle since the sand and clean rock will be used.

Dan

[Ron Reefman]

Dan,

The answer is probably a short cycle but it depends on several things. How well the live sand survies the cleaning process, how much 'stuff' is still in the sand (I've cleaned sand and it's amazing how much s**t is in it), and how well the live rock has done. How long has the rock been in the barrel?

Good luck,
Another Florida Guy

[InADream]

The rock came from an established tank of a few years and was placed in a barrel around 5-6 months ago. It has been in saltwater with a powerhead since it came from the tank. It was only out of the water maybe an hour than I changed around 50% of the water.

I thought about stirring the sand up one time and filtering. Then put the sand in the tank and over the course of a few weeks continue to stir up the sand and let the tank clean it.

Dan