My cycle is proceeding nicely with only live sand and some dead shrimp (the smell is gone courtesy of carbon in a quickfilter on a powerhead). I jumped started the shrimp at the beginning of the cycle with clear ammonia (for two days at 2 ppm). While bagged LS doesn't contain pods, etc. it certainly contains bacteria - with luck the kind needed to spur the cycle.
From what I've read about lr.com, the rock produces only a small spike in a cycled tank. After my sand sets up, I'm adding the rock. I'll wait and monitor for ammonia, then begin my cleanup brigade with the first fish doing a one-month stint in QT (probably a jawfish).
As I said - my cycle is going strong. Ammo is still very high (8+), with nitrites at around 2 and nitrates 25. (Nitrites appeared three days ago, and nitrates a day and a half later) This afternoon will be the end of day 10.
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30 gal standard 55 lbs LR, 60 lb live sand, 10 gal sump/refugium. Urchin skimmer, mag7 pump, 3 x 96W PC combination 10,000K/actinic bulb, 2 blue LED moonlights
SG 1.024, temp 79.5, pH 8.4
Livestock I added:
1 skunk cleaner. 12 hermits: red, scarlet, blue. 15 or so assorted snails. Discosomas, Ricordia, Rhodactis mushroom corals, chaetomorpha (sump), 1 feather duster, Montipora digitata, Montipora capricornis, Montipora hispids. assorted zoos, Xenia, Kenya tree coral, green Sinularia, green star polyps, branching hammer coral, bubble coral, Devil's hand leather. Yellow chromis, purple firefish.
Hitchhikers: the usual suspects :crabs, bristles, urchin, mantis shrimp (now in exile in mantis tank)
List of possible/likely newcomers:
Feather duster. PJ cardinal, Bangghai cardinal, Firefish goby, Clownfish, Neon goby, Yellow watchman goby, Orchid dottyback. Various corals.
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