Cycling base rock

[Acronuts]

Just a quick question.
Do I need to run an airstone in a large bin to cycle base rock?
I currently have a mag pump inside just for circulation.
Will this be enough?

 

[Zer0]

The pump will be fine. As long as the water is circulating, you will not need an airstone.

 

[thincat]

Pump and a heater if it gets to cold. I would not worry about ph, but get SG in the ball park. I replace the water with the water I take from my DT when I do PWC. This keeps everything in check.

 

[HappyHooligan]

I'm using an old skimmer pump w/ a venturi hose to agitate/oxygenate the water, heater at 80-85, and put a box over the container to keep out light.
I couldn't be happier w/ the curing cycling process.

 

[Acronuts]

Thnxs guys!
I added 10g of water from my display to the 35g bin of along with some sand to seed the base rock.
Will the beneficial bacteria need light? Will the seeding bacteria from the sand starve since it is not actually being feed?

 

[Zer0]

No they don't need light. Not sure about the bacteria from the sand though.

 

[ryshark]

Thnxs guys!
I added 10g of water from my display to the 35g bin of along with some sand to seed the base rock.
Will the beneficial bacteria need light? Will the seeding bacteria from the sand starve since it is not actually being feed?

The bacteria will need a source of ammonia to survive. Now that source of ammonia could be coming from die off from the base rock. However, not all base rock has die off. The base rock I purchased came from I think desert, which was reef millions of years ago. If that is the same for you then the base rock will probably not have ammonia and you wouldn't even need to cycle the rock. Test the water for ammonia and see what you get.

 

[melosu58]

We have a good article about curing rock in our SW articles section.

 

[Acronuts]

I will test water tomorrow on day three. I will let you guys know if I have any ammonia.