seeding

If I were to put dry sand and cry rock into my tank... Is there a product that I can add to the water to seed it so I con't have to buy pre-seeded LR/LS?

 

My local fish store told me that they have bacteria that's used as your "starter" colony, but from everything I have read, its better to go with Live Rock/Live Sand combination. And if you do go for the bacteria in a bottle, I'd go with the stuff they keep in the fridge.

 

Just ask your lfs or a local reefer for a small cup of thier sand to seed your tank with

 

and for coraline, can always buy 1 piece of LR that has coraline on it to speed things up. and as wuwu said, get a cup of established sand. and away you go.

 

OK... Thanks everybody

 

A cup of sand from an established healthy aquarium that you trust or a simple and only one yellow tailed damsel in there he will seed it .

 

I would caution on the damsel unless you feel like catching him later, I still have a damsel that is causing me headaches...

 

The responses given are good, another way to speed things up is to use live bacteria such as "Cycle" live bacteria. Your LFS should carry one or more of the main brands.

 

What type did you use ?

 

I'd go with some sand from an established tank and some rubble LR over a bottled additive. either will work but ones a little more natural then the other. to help spread the coraline scrape some of of the established LR and let the fines float around the tank (keeping UV, sock filter, carbon, GFO--- OFF.. shouldn't be running them during cycle anyhow).

To jump start the cycle all you really need to add is some fish food every couple of days.

In order to have coraline and a live sand bed follow what i wrote above and get a scoop of sand from LFS established tank.