I bought this tank as a complete set-up. It was setup as a bare bottom tank. The tank was setup for about 6 years. So the LR was well cured. I added 20 pounds black and white LS from Aragonite. The transport took around 3 hours but was transported in water so there was very little to no die-off. I felt extremely comfortable with the mini-cycle only taking a week. The previous owner had lost interest and there was some bubble algae and hair algae.