Adding live rock to cycling tank

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tdubrow

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Messages
72
Location
New Jersey
Been doing a fishless cycle on my 75 gallon for about 4 weeks now. Using pure ammonia for the cycle. I am using a wet/dry filter (not running my skimmer yet) and the tank is filled with base rock. I am going through the nitrite spike right now. I stopped dosing the ammonia 2 days ago and added 15lbs of live rock. LFS said it was fully cured but I beg to differ. I figure there will be some die off as Im adding it to a nitrite spike but my questions is this:

Should I be putting a raw shrimp in the tank for an ammonia source to feed the existing bacteria or will I be fine with just the minor die off from the live rock? Maybe add some food to the tank? Just dont want to cause a problem with my cycle with the lack of ammonia source.

I may be over thinking this but I'm used to fishless cycling freshwater tanks where you keep dosing the ammonia daily or every other day until nitrite is gone. The a big water change to drop the nitrates and you add fish. Any help will be appreciated.

Also, should I fire the skimmer up now or should I wait until the cycle is complete?
 
no difference here in the SW world... IMO.. drop the rock in and test.. if the ammonia rises over time then you have die off.. If not, back to the ammonia dosing. In the end, there is nothing wrong with adding the rock and dosing the ammonia. Decide what level ur shooting for (2ppm?) and dose to that level.. If the rock adds anything then you'll be dosing less.. if it doesn't then no diff.
 
no difference here in the SW world... IMO.. drop the rock in and test.. if the ammonia rises over time then you have die off.. If not, back to the ammonia dosing. In the end, there is nothing wrong with adding the rock and dosing the ammonia. Decide what level ur shooting for (2ppm?) and dose to that level.. If the rock adds anything then you'll be dosing less.. if it doesn't then no diff.

Wont dosing the ammonia kill the life that exists is the tank right now? The live rock has been in for 48hrs and I have been starting to see some worms and snails.
 
No (well probably not).. you need ammonia to cycle the tank (in some form) but ammonia is ammonia be it rotting food, fish waste or str8 from the bottle.
 
Wont dosing the ammonia kill the life that exists is the tank right now?
Somebody on this forum had posted an ammonia level that could kill the bacteria your trying to establish.
If I remember correctly it was a ridiculously high level that could hardly occur naturally.
 
Somebody on this forum had posted an ammonia level that could kill the bacteria your trying to establish.
If I remember correctly it was a ridiculously high level that could hardly occur naturally.

Ive only been doing about 1-2ppm of ammonia every other day.
 
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