Cycling new tank

[Gh El]

Hello
Recently bought a used Red Sea max 130 which I wish to transform to marine / coral
I'm on the stage of cycling now & wanted to know if it's ok to cycle with live sand or crushed coral instead of live rock ( not a fan of live rock due to the hitch hikers & rock losing colour during cycle )
Can I also put artificial live rock now or do I need to wait till after the cycle ( chose the artificial even though it's more pricy than the live so there's no hitch hikers & colour remains the same )
Your help is greatly appreciated

 

[Brian Kim]

Hello and welcome to R2R. You have posted on sponsors forums
Hope mods see this and move to "Meet & Greet Forums"
@mdbannister, @maroun.c @143MPCo

 

[Brian Kim]

Yes you can add dry rock to your system now while cycling and I would recommend it as well, it will be your primary source of biological filtration. BRS sell dry rock at a pretty affordable price (http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-reef-saver-dry-aquarium-live-rock.html) but it will turn into all diferrent colors while cycling the tank, from brown to green to purple lol.
Here's an alternative...http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=31771. I used it on my main DT and just loved the natural look of all the pink and purple coralline algae on them (you can click on the video on my signature to see if you like them)
Once again, they are both dry rocks so no unwanted hitchhikers or critters!

 

[Gh El]

What about substrate
Live sand or crushed coral

 

[Lynn52]

Argonite sand is my preference, live is fine but I wouldn't spend the extra money to have be live.

 

[Brian Kim]

I would go with live sand since you already have the tank up and running. Also, now is a good time to ask yourself what color sand you would like.
Seen a lot of people trying to change sand color after setting up the tank, including myself
I prefer Carib Sea live sand, Fiji Pink for light beige and Hawaiian Black for black&white

Fiji Pink

Hawaiian Black