Remote Tank Cycle possible?

I had to break down my established reef a few months ago and will be starting over, I have 160 pounds of new live sand and 150 pounds of new base rock. I won't be setting my new tank up until May, can I cycle my tank in brute trash cans prior to set up? It would just be the base rock and no sand with a few pieces of live rock to seed. I want to just be able to set up immediately and not have to wait out a whole cycle when I do move in May. There might be some biological matter left in my tank that I couldn't scrape off, but it won't be much. Would this method work?

 

You gonna have a bare bottom tank?
I cycled my tank in an old RSM130 and then moved it to a new tank. I moved most of the old tank's water to the new one and had no problems.

 

No i have 160 pounds of new live sand, and nothing established to move over. I want to cycle rocks in a trash bin and move that and some water over.

 

Yes cycling the rock in a separate container will work fine. Put some filter media (sponge/floss) in the container the closer you get to set up date.

Do not count on the Live sand to add anything of substance to the biological filter.

You're still going to have to stock slowly (within reason), feed sparingly initially, and have fresh SW made up in case you see an ammonia spike.

 

I always have alot of extra saltwater on hand What would I need filter material for out of curosity? I plan on starting to cycle my base rock as soon as January, 150 pounds of base rock, and probably 2-5 pounds of live rock. Shouldnt need a ton of water changes, becasuse it will be mostely base rock. I will add powerheads and heaters. Once I move, I will add the sand, alot of water from the rocks, and alot of freshly made saltwater, and the rocks that have been cycling for around 4 months.

 

Sponge or flow will help spread those beneficial bacteria to areas of the tank not directly in contact with sand or rock, like a sump or overflows, spread the wealth.

 

oh ok, I will be setting up my 55gallon, refugium/sump so that should definately spread the wealth. I also have a couple of bottles of cycle, should I add that in with the rocks or when I add the cycled rocks to the tank? I have 3 bottles, I could always add two when I start the rocks, and another when I start my tank.

 

I do not know enough about those products. I will say this though if I were going to that route I would use Dr.Tims.
The only cycle or bacteria in bottle I have used and liked is Microbacter7 but it was not used in a newly set up system.
It's a decent sized system, with all your rock cycled (you provide a source of organic matter initially)you should be fine.

 

Is this the same theory as cooking your rocks? If so, don't they need regular rinsing and water changes as they purge themselves of phosphates and detritus? I would really hesitate to use the water your rock cycled in. The beneficial bacteria is in the rock, not the water column.

 

Rinse the rock once and you should not have to worry about further detritus issues if you rinse the rock well enough.
Phosphates should be of no concern if the rock has not been immersed in phosphates for long periods of time.
Cycling in a separate container all you need to do is make sure you have some flow/O2 and top off with FW you do not need to preform water changes.
Yes this procedure is often called cooking the rock.