Slider - from where did you order the Dr Tim's? I've had a tough time finding it north of the border.

I ordered it from Dr Tim's website. They had a sale on when I ordered it so it wasn't that expensive. Keep an eye on the website, they rotate through the sales on all their products.

if anyone of the LFS in town orders from quality marine they should be able to bring in a bottle for you

Sounds like pretty powerful stuff. I will check it out.

Would you do that even if your rock smells very bad and is encrusted in dead stuff?

So in the end I decided to try the Prodibio Startup (largely because Red Coral had it on the shelf).

It's been 3 days now and tonight I plan on doing a full spectrum of water tests. I'll adjust params and hope to have livestock in the tank by the weekend.

I'll report back on the results.

Unless your rock was disgusting and you threw in a bunch of NH4, your parameters are probably going to test just fine and dandy.

Just sayin...

In theory, the params should be pretty much inline with my salt (reef crystals). And, for the most part, they seem to be:

pH 8.0
Mg 1000
NO2 0
NO3 0
Alk 2.5 meq/l
Ca 375
NH3 <0.25

Added a schwck of Mg last night and will do Alk today. Ca tomorrow and fish go in on Sunday.

Fingers crossed

No I would not, the stuff is not magic; it's going to have limitations for sure, the instructions on the prodibio products are "best case scenario" so loading you're new tank with a bunch of rock that has been travelling to you for a few days is not ideal; in my opinion. However I believe you could follow the instructions on the product and have speed up a cycle process if you are using less than ideal rock.

Anyone use MB7 to cycle? If so, get ready for a dumb question.

I've started dosing as per the instructions for a new tank on listed on the bottle.

Do I need an accompanying food source? Or is just the MB7 fine? I've done a few searches and I have yet to stumble upon an answer.

Thanks!

Use it with VSV and just watch your algae and NH4/NO3 for a litmus.