Cycling without LR?

[Richer]

I would just wait it out if its only a couple of weeks. Back when I was cycling my tank, I only had baserock in there for the first month or so... so I tossed in a chunk of raw prawn in there to get the bacteria going. By the time the ammonia and nitrite levels were down to zero, I was ready to put LR in there. Its by all means not needed, but I wasn't sure if I was going to be putting LR in there anytime soon.

Just FYI, putting in used tank water will not do much in terms of giving your cycle a kick start. If doing so was true, every reefer would be giving newcomers used tank water whenever water changes came about and no one would need LR because the water would contain everything that we need in terms of biological filtration. In reality, nitrifying bactera mainly resign on the surfaces of your tank (ie. rock surfaces, glass, etc.). Thats why many reefers recommended a certain amount of LR per gallon of water to ensure that you will have enough surface area for biological filtration.
Getting a scoop of sand from an established tank wouldn't hurt, and is a pretty good idea to give your sandbed a kickstart. Ask around, I'm sure there are people around here who wouldn't mind giving you a small amount of sand.
I'm leary about using cycle... some people say it works, many other say it doesn't. I've never used it in SW tanks, but have experimented with it in FW tanks. In a nutshell, I did not see any significant difference in cycling times between the tank that used it, and the tank that didn't use it.

-Richer