question

im curing my 24lbs of LR in a 10 gallon and the ammonia reads 2 its been about 4 days how long untill the cycle is over?

 

imo still a ways to go. not sure about smaller tanks , but about 6 weeks for larger ones. get use to watching rocks for a while longer.

 

man thats way longer than i thought im just waiting to set up a 30 gal so i was curing the rock for it

but i heard the tank will cycle faster in the dark?

 

nope, time time time

 

my friends sps tank has been running for a year what if i used his tank water to help speed up the cycle?

 

not about the water, its about the rocks

 

The best thing to speed a cycle is cured rock, and cured sand from a well established tank. 24lbs in 10 gallons of water is a lot of rock. If the ammonia is at 2, you still have some time to wait. If this is a new tank, just cure the rock in the display. If you are using dry rock, it will take a few weeks to leech out all of the crap. Just switch of the flow in the tank often to try to loosen the debree in the rock. I use a canister filter for curing my base rock. That way the canister filter will suck up the debree from the rock. A hang on back will do the same.

I'm pretty sure people say to cure in the dark because it will prevent some algae from growing.

 

We did this with the rock (FROM A VERY ESTABLISHED TANK, I MEAN mini starfish, giant copepods, pods, tons of stuff growing on and in them). I wouldn't use someone elses sand because of their nitrates or any nasty nast left in the sand bed (it's like a big potty to me). We use silica sand because of the shark. You can use some water from an "established tank" as well, but with freshly made salt water you know it will be pristine.
this sped it up for us, but i've been doing tanks for 18 years and sometimes it just works

 

thanks

but the LR is going into a 30 gallon i have the lights, thermometer , heater , sand ,salt etc

im just curing it in the 10 the rock has been baked in the sun and been sitting in a box for a couple of months

 

So it is dry. Just keep it in the 10g for a couple weeks. Its only been 7 days since you filled it and that isnt long enough. 6 weeks minimum. Take a powerhead and spray all of the pores on the rock to get rid of ALL the loose debris weekly. Get some chaeto and a clump of sand from an WELL established friends reef. You will see pods everywhere in no time. It will def cut your cycle time down, but I would still cook that rock for awhile before adding corals. Crap can leach out for long time periods of time depending on how well the rock was rinsed before it dried and what it was rinsed with.