Hello,
Just starting a 10 gal saltwater tank. I have about 8 pounds of live rock, 20 pounds of live sand. What do i need to do to cycle. Is this all i need. I've read to put a shrimp in, is this necessary. Do I need to add a cleaning crew soon or wait a while. Day one of cycling. Thanks for any help..

Yes the shrimp is necessary to kick start your bacteria. And just starting out you have nothing for a clean up crew to clean. Just a word of advice... Don't rush your tank. With such a small volume of water things can get out of hand fairly fast. So take your time. a good cycle can take up to 6 weeks.

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I would also put some macro algae like chaetomorphia in there as well.

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

I have never cycled a tank before with dead shrimp. I just put the live rock in and let it cycle the tank. If your live rock is cured rock you should run through the cycle in a couple of weeks.

The reason I would use the shrimp cured rock or not is you know just where you are starting. There are so many ways to cycle a tank. For me this way takes the guess work out of it.

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