how come no one talks about this?

[Jonathan G.]

adding fully cured live rock to your tank and having no cycle at all. from what i've heard if you add enough live rock it will have enough bacteria that you wont need to cycle it out. i dont know the specifics as far as why it's like that as opposed to putting in uncured or cycling with shrimp or starter fish. is this true if so how does it work and why don't people talk about this way more often?

 

[Clown Monarch]

I had no cycle when I started my 125 - it came with the LR.

 

[grimlock3000]

Even most "fully cured" rock still causes a cycle when you add it to a new tank. The reason for this is that few LFS actually keep LR fully cured even when they claim it is. Also, rock that is fully cured and shipped to you through the mail usually goes through a die off and needs to be cured again.

 

[Fluff]

There are threads talking about little or no cycle when using very fresh rock or cured rock. The rock is their to give the bacteria a place to grow. Fresh rock will already be poluted with good bacteria and cycling time will be very quick if at all. However, it is very unlikely that you will get rock that in the time it takes to get to you and in your tank, that there will be no die off. Most times you will still have a spike but, it will be minimal and quick.

 

[lando]

LR is not the only consideration. If you used All fully cured and fresh LR, all LS from an established tank and established filter media you should be able to avoid a cycle. Most of the time this it is just not possible. I was able to avoid a cycle when I started my nano by using alot of stuff from exsisting tanks.

 

[RMPD109]

The problem with cured LR from my LFS is that it has gone throught he die off process. At that point the rock is kept in SW but with nothing to feed the beneficial bacteria. The rock is cured but the nitrifying bacteria is minimal to non existant. Without this bacteria you will need to have a cycle to rebuild this biological base.

 

[Jonathan G.]

he keeps a whole grip of damsels in there, the yellow one actually bites him everytime he put his hand in there and he also has a lawnmower blenny in there. he also has about 3in of live rock rubble on the bottom of the tank with a few snails and stars throughout it. I live only minutes away and use the same salt and keep the same temp as his tanks. i put the live rock in there and had no parameter changes for a week so i went ahead and put 2 percs in there. I just put some more cured rock in there today. if it goes bad or it ends up cycling i can always take them back and he'll keep them in a seperate tank for me. im just doing this i guess for learning purposes.

 

[Jonathan G.]

by the way the fish are doing great and seem to enjoy their new home, although they stay away from the live rock and love the open waters more.

 

[steve-s]

The problem with cured LR from my LFS is that it has gone throught he die off process. At that point the rock is kept in SW but with nothing to feed the beneficial bacteria. The rock is cured but the nitrifying bacteria is minimal to non existant. Without this bacteria you will need to have a cycle to rebuild this biological base.

This is most time exactly the case. Many LFS keep cured rock in holding bins seperate from the animals. If so, you really should cycle the tank as if new except in instances where Jonathan G. pointed out, the LFS houses fish with the rock.

Cheers
Steve

 

[skennelly]

I did this same exact thing with my 90 gallon setup. I put in 135 pounds of cured rock and 65 pounds of livesand and I had no cycle at all, not even a small spike in ammonia.

 

[Jason]

I started a pico the other week..... 2.5 gallons.

It is full of coral. It hasn't been two weeks yet.


it's possible, but on a bigger system I would let it cycle.

 

[midiman]

This "die-off" of LR is why I pre-cured my tank with sand ... I'm hoping to minimize the secondary spike in two ways:

1 -> ordering my rock from liverocks.com, and

2-> counting on the established bed to make up for any die-off in the LR.

We'll see how it goes. LR arrives tomorrow.