Unique cycling situation?

[Krae]

So I’ve been searching and not finding much pertaining to my situation. I have been thinking about setting up again and happened to get on Craigslist and found a 10 with sand and some rock that was used as quarantine. No coralline algae on the few pieces though, think she said the light was broke. I have some dry rock from my last tear down.

I put 5 gal of the water from the aquarium in a bucket with the rock and left the sand wet to transport. Got home and set it up and filled it and started the same filter that had floss and carbon in it.

I don’t think I cleaned the dry rock when I tore down. Do do I need to cure my dry rock with acid or vinegar? Or would some bacteria be good? I don’t imagine this tank would go through much of a cycle if I cured the rock. I also need to go buy a small piece covered in coraline to get all of it going.

 

[sde1500]

So I’ve been searching and not finding much pertaining to my situation. I have been thinking about setting up again and happened to get on Craigslist and found a 10 with sand and some rock that was used as quarantine. No coralline algae on the few pieces though, think she said the light was broke. I have some dry rock from my last tear down.

I put 5 gal of the water from the aquarium in a bucket with the rock and left the sand wet to transport. Got home and set it up and filled it and started the same filter that had floss and carbon in it.

I don’t think I cleaned the dry rock when I tore down. Do do I need to cure my dry rock with acid or vinegar? Or would some bacteria be good? I don’t imagine this tank would go through much of a cycle if I cured the rock. I also need to go buy a small piece covered in coraline to get all of it going.

You used live rock to cycle the tank. Definitely not very unique, it is done frequently, and a great way to easily cycle a tank. I likely wouldn't bother doing anything with the old rock beyond adding it to the tank. There are likely some nutrients dried onto the rock via algae, depends on how messy your last tank was before you broke it down. If it was a lot of algae may not hurt using some vinegar.

 

[Krae]

I wasn’t starting with a new tank or bagged sand, I moved an established tank. So I wasn’t sure if I would get an ammonia spike or if I’ll be good to go. I did search and didn’t find much. I guess I shouldn’t have posted. I was excited to get set back up but I’m rusty.

 

[sde1500]

I wasn’t starting with a new tank or bagged sand, I moved an established tank. So I wasn’t sure if I would get an ammonia spike or if I’ll be good to go. I did search and didn’t find much. I guess I shouldn’t have posted. I was excited to get set back up but I’m rusty.

Oh no, no reason not to start a thread and ask. Might have misread some of your post, but you're just taking on an established tank and adding more dry rock? You'll definitely not see a cycle at all then. That is, assuming the tank was well established and isn't too disturbed in the move. Keeping the rocks and sand wet was a good move. I'd still let things settle in a bit with any added rock before adding critter, but depending on your plan for the tank you should be good to go really.

 

[Krae]

Okay thank you. I guess the extra rock I want to add would be considered dead rock because it came out of my last one and was live rock out of someone’s bigger tank. So I think I’ll give it a bath so whatever’s left on it won’t cause a small cycle. It was probably an hour from tear down to setting back up. Poured the water on the rock and it was clear a few hours after set up. Going to try and find some live rock from someone’s established reef to seed mine so there’s no die off. Glad I get to skip some of the waiting.