yet another cycling question

[ct67_72]

I really want to stay away from using shrimp and took some others advise and just wanted to see what everyone thought. my tank had been fresh water and had been dry for about 3 weeks to a month. I filled it with fresh water got everything water, the next day I added salt and got the sg stable, then added live sand. about 5 hours later I have added 25 pounds of live rock, (tank is 29). so my question is (and what ive heard) is that this will get the cycle going. I really diddnt think about it untill today but I hope that it doesnt have any adverse affects on the live rock?
and if this is ok, how long should the cycle be? I will be checking everything daily so more out of curiosity

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Whether or not you'll cycle with just rock will depend on how much stuff is going to die off from the rock. If it was pretty "dead" rock with nothing on it (base rock), then you most likely won't see any cycle. You'll know you're cycling if you see an ammonia spike, followed by a spike in nitrites. As both ammonia and nitrite levels fall off, you'll see your nitrate levels increase. A cycle can take anywhere from a couple weeks to six weeks.

Not sure why you really want to stay away from the shrimp method? It's a totally safe way to introduce an ammonia source. The other thing you can do is to put a pinch of fish food in every couple days until you see the ammonia rise.

 

[ct67_72]

the rock came from the fish store right out of the tank seems to have a lot of life. I dont want to deal with the smell of the shrimp because my tank is in my bedroom. I was thinking about the fish food thing too actually.

 

[melosu58]

If you got the LR from your LFS then it probably is already cured. You might not see a cycle but you might want to add a few flakes to keep your cycle going. Keep doing water test to see if you see a rise in ammonia or nitrites.