Brass tacks: Final questions

[QCppg]

Well I am now committed; I have my salt mix and hydrometer (the only two pieces I was missing from my giant buy-out last month) and the tank I'm gonna be building into a nano-reef (20 long). I have my base rock and I will have my base sand tommorow (no live rock yet, I want to get the water mixed and aeriated before I put anything live in there). Now I have a couple final questions before I actually fill the tank.

1: Can I use a bacteria culture from a FRESHWATER tank to jumpstart the cycle whilst I wait to get my live rock (I get paid on Friday which is the absolute earliest I could get it).

2: If I can use fw bacteria to pre-cycle the tank would it help me avoid having to use the dead shrimp by leaving the tank fw until just before I get my live rock and leave some feeder guppies in there in the mean time?

3: For lighting I'm gonna be building a custom 4-6 lamp fixture (undecided at time) so I can have corals, however I won't have the money to do so for a minumum of 2 weeks. Assuming that I get my live rock this Friday or Saturday how much light will I need in the mean time to minimize die-off (the live rock is precured).

Thanks.

 

[mogurnda]

1. Nope. Different critters.
2. See #1
3. Most of the die off won't be due to lack of light, but from being out of water. You'll get different opinions (which are as valid as mine), but I think a few weeks without light won't be a big problem. In any case, because you will need to be cycling the tank, you'll have time to wait for the lights.