Sorry to hear of your troubles but glad to hear that things are recovering.

You mentioned Prodibio Startup, I was trying to look for more info on this, on the FAQ page they mentioned being able to add livestock within hours of adding this - I take it this is assuming established live rock is used - curious what the recommendation is for new starts starting up that have used mostly (or exclusively) dry rock (which would require more time for bacterial colonization, no?)

the info is not related to live rock being used, however start up will rapidly colonies any bacterial media, this includes of course dry rock.

I used it due to my tank sitting stale for 3 days to beat any nutrient spikes before they happened, specifically ammonia. I am now back to my regular prodi dosing.

here is the main PDF file on it

http://www.prodibio.fr/library/pdf/prod_pdf_enr_1.pdf

wow those colonies have gotten pretty big since you have added them. things should bounce back really quick

so you dose start up once and then continue with the normal prodibio procedure (biodigest,biotipm, etc)?

If its a new tank yes, or if adding some uncured rock to a new system also. Start Up will speed up the curing process of live rock also.