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Originally Posted by Acipenser
Thanks, the live rock is well cured it came out of a sump of an established tank. I am guessing it may be instant cycled or just undergo a mini cycle.
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more than likely you will under go a " mini cycle" but theres factors involved.think of it this way if you got your rock from an established tank(a tank running for more than a year) then over that year the bacteria has been feeding and repopulating to a point where it consumes amonia as fast as it can be produced by fish waste, food,ditrius etc. all of this produces amonia but the rock has built up enough nitrifying bacteria to convert it as fast as it is being provided. its like a balance game, everything is equal thats why once established you should never see a spike in amonia in your tank unless something drastic happens.
when you remove the rock from that established tank depending on how you transport it theres going to be amonia as there will be die off from the rock being out of water and some amonia released from the sand movement where the bacteria cannot get to as well. it may not be as much as rock thats been out of water for a long time but may be a little.... a little is all it takes to do some serious harm to your fish and inverts/corals.
once you move the rock to your house the nitrifying bacteria are now dealing with an excess amount of amonia that they are not use to handling and so they need to increase there numbers. even if its just a small cycle the bacteria population needs to become large enough again to handle the load. its the balancing game, in order for us to have fish there cant be amonia ,in order to get rid of amonia there needs to be a suffciant number of nitrifying bacteria that can convert it as fast as it is being dealt out.
the longer your tank is running and the more porus your rock is the more nitrifying bacteria will produce.there more bacteria there is the more amonia it can convert hence the more fish you can have( provided they fit your tank size
there are products that make amonia not poisonous but its not need it you play the patience game and not add fish untill your ready.
so if your rock spent very little time out of water, if its very porus, and came from a well established system then you may see a very small spike in amonia.still you should wait a couple weeks before adding fish....if you plan on having your tank for many years then theres no rush for the sake of 2 weeks right??
im not the best at explaining these science things but thats the jist of it im sure someone with a biology back ground will step in but this should help lol
do as alang said and test frequently for your first year untill you get a grasp on how it all works.visiting another reefers house helps and seeing how they run their set ups is a great learning experience.
in the mean time what most people do during the waiting period is practise testing and bringing your water where it needs to be (alk,cal,mg) research the fish you want to have and ask here if they are a good choice(most new peoples biggest mistakes is not researching fish) read some books and articles and visit others tanks.
think about what you want to have as a clean up crew(should be added before fish imo) and run them by here to see if they are a good choice
i think i covered what i wanted to say lol good luck and cheers