[MOB1224]

Originally Posted by Professor Sweat

I'm currently cycling my 10 gallon nano with uncured gulf live rock. Had a couple of sponges and barnacles die on me giving an ammonia spike, but it's been a week and a half and my levels are starting to drop. No more dead stuff and the LIFE is amazing. Copepods, amphipods, snails, a hermit, tunicates, feather duster worms, encrusting sponges, macro algae, spionid worms, limpets, different colors of corraline, and baby cup corals. I also got a harmless little sea slug that has been eating pods, a pistol shrimp that I've only heard, and one or two TINY gorilla crabs that I'll trap out eventually and throw in my fuge. And that's just all I can see with my eyes. The microbial biodiversity must be insane.

Perhaps you could cycle with dead rock and then add a few pounds of live to populate the tank. I can see why you'd want to go the dead route, but good live rock will add so much more to your tank. Just my two cents

Just watch for that "pistol shrimp" it may end up being a mantis shrimp instead