Quote:
Originally Posted by reeferfulton
ok , thanks for the posts .
this has triggered another hour of reading the forums in search of ways to cycle the dry rock in my tank ..
few questions .
in tank now . is 50 lbs dry ,
1. Would you recommend adding say 5 pounds of live rock from the bins at the local fish store ?
If so add it to the DT or the sump ?
2. If i add 5 lbs , do i still need to cycle with the shrimp .
3. Is there actually anything Beneficial ..(inverts etc) living on the live rock that fish stores have sitting in the big black bins soaking .. Or is this just rock that is soaking that they call live ..
Ex . Do they feed there live rock typically ?
I am confused all over again lol .. Seems the internet has way to many opinions . and that there is so many schools of thought on how to establish a SW tank.
I need to set up the beneficial bacteria chain in my tank , From what i have learned the only way to do this using dry rock is to introduce ammonia . and wait .
Now if i say spend 50 bucks and go buy some ready to go live rock . I transport it in sw and shove it in my tank, I will have very little die off on that lr .
essentially that one peice of rock ( if they have been feeding it ) should have no cycle ..
So my point is . what did the LR do for my tank at all ? other then introduce microorganisms or whatever people are always talking about .
Or is this LR piece (rubble ) intended to merely seed the other rock ..
Seeding is different then cycling i think ..
errr brain hurts
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1. The more LR you use to seed, the faster you will have the tank ready. I won't give any specific amount of week since that varies (some people who starts with matured LR only won't even have any cycle). I personally prefers to get LR from reefers instead of LFS since LR from reefers have a much much less chance of any pest.
2. You would still need to feed the cycle. By adding LR, you are introducing bacteria in the system which will need food to multiply. Without the initial LR (called seeding), you would be starting the system without any bacteria and hence the bacteria will take much longer to appear in your system.
3. LR is only LIVE because of the bacteria. There will possibly be other living stuffs (algae, hitchhiker, pests, etc.) but basically, LFS keep LR connected to their systems to keep them live (generally, not all I guess).
SW do have many schools of thoughts but only few of them are correct. Sometimes, you just have to read through all and be the judge of the correct one yourself. If you read "LR is bad" and another article says "LR is good", be our own judge to see which one sounds "right".
If you transport cured LR from LFS to your home, you will basically have NO dieoffs and the bacteria will be living on it. Uncured ones will have a different stories and I am not too familiar with it. So when you put it in your system, the bacteria will spread over your macro rocks and thus seeding takes place. And then you start cycling with some sort of method (like shrimp) and the bacteria, which is already there, will multiply and BAM! You will have bacteria all over your rocks in....oh well....due time.
Tried my best
