Adding Live Rock

[rtoycrow]

I am about to add some live rock to my 125 gallon. At the moment I have 100 lbs of base rock in my tank. I plan on buying 45 lbs of fiji live rock to seed the base rock. I am in no hurry for live stock but I was wondering about how long it would take for the live rock to grow to the base rock and are there any precautions when I add the live rock such as handling it when I put it in the tank or dye off. I will cycle with cocktail shrimp. Any other suggestions I would greatly appreciate. Thanks

 

[melosu58]

You could probably just cycle your tank with the die off of the LR.

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree with Mike....the die-off of the LR will get your cycle going.

 

[MSU Fan]

I agree with Mike....the die-off of the LR will get your cycle going.

So, if I understand correctly, you are saying that using a shrimp to produce the ammonia necessary to begin the cycle is not necessary when you are curing Live Rock? And that is because the critters/etc on the LR will die off and produce the ammonia themselves?

Wouldn't adding the shrimp begin the process faster than waiting for the die off (maybe only a couple of days though)? It would seem to me that an additional source of ammonia would assist the cycle better. Maybe I'm offbase, and I appreciate any corrections (as I will be doing this very, very soon! ).

 

[melosu58]

It really depends how much die off is on the LR. Either way it is an ammonia source and will work. I believe they would work about the same amount of time.