Cycling a new aquarium. One of the earliest topics a new aquarium hobbyist needs to learn is how to properly cycle their aquarium. There is a ton of information on this process and many different methods on how to accomplish it. There are many different chemical and biological cycles our tank...
submerge it in water, active in two weeks simple as that. probably sooner, 2 weeks is when people have been adding fish no loss. No need to buy bottle bac using purple painted liferock, see their site/adhered dormant bac
I've cycled three tanks now (1 DT and 2 QT's), and I have used Dr. Tim's One and Only for them. You can also get the Ammonium Chloride that they make to "feed" the bacteria when first added it if you don't add fish until it's done cycling. With my display I waited to add fish, but with the QT tanks I added it the day before I added the fish and did small water changes as needed to keep parameters in check until it fully cycled.