adding rock to seed

[currentking]

Good morning everyone,
If I were to add a few good sized Marco rocks to the sump of a very well established(10+ years running) aquarium, how long would they need to be there to get a good amount of bacteria to transfer to a new aquarium to help the cycling process? I will also be using Dr. tims fishless cycle and coralline algae in a bottle from Algae Barn.

 

[HairyGary]

Good question but I would guess 2-3 weeks to be safe.

 

[brandon429]

inert surfaces take on cycling bacteria such that they can pass individual oxidation testing in 20 days, Tuffloud's thread measured this by connecting an all dry system to a running reef and only one pvc pipe in and out circulated the water. he took the new tank offline on day 20 and it passed oxidation, by contact alone and no bottle bac needed although bb will speed up the 20 days to about half.

Tuffloud's thread ends the debate on whether or not reef water has cycling bacteria in it...there are millions of circulating bac in reef water, and on the surfaces. they're not just on surfaces or the new tank would've never cycled.

 

[currentking]

inert surfaces take on cycling bacteria such that they can pass individual oxidation testing in 20 days, Tuffloud's thread measured this by connecting an all dry system to a running reef and only one pvc pipe in and out circulated the water. he took the new tank offline on day 20 and it passed oxidation, by contact alone and no bottle bac needed although bb will speed up the 20 days to about half.

Tuffloud's thread ends the debate on whether or not reef water has cycling bacteria in it...there are millions of circulating bac in reef water, and on the surfaces. they're not just on surfaces or the new tank would've never cycled.

This is awesome! I greatly appreciate your response.