Do not use live sand and particularly DO NOT USE dry seeded artificial live rock until cycling is complete. There are no dry bacteria species that will be compatible with this nitrifying bacteria product or that are useful to cycle an aquarium at all! To use a dry bacteria will only lengthen the time it takes to cycle by many weeks and increase your work many times! Wet cycled live rock or even previously cycled wet man made rock will work fine (although this may be a bad idea due to the possibility of introducing parasites or pathogens from another aquarium). Dry sand is fine to use, but not bagged, so called "live sand" because the manufacturer will usually introduce other bacteria species to replace the natural bacteria that will die and these will be counterproductive to your cycle. Also, several so called "probiotic" salts are available. Again, there are no species of bacteria that are conducive to cycling that are available in a dry form. Therefore, do not use any salt that is labelled as probiotic or says it contains dry bacteria.