Base rock and Live Rock

[Andrew v.s wild]

Can i cycle a tank with Base rock and a little bit of LR?
I've never used dry rock before so im just wondering
And about how long does it take for it to become live?

[ErikH]

Has the dry rock been cured yet? If not cure it seperately as there is anaerobic bacteria inside the rock (i believe) that my wreak havoc if you are trying to no cycle a system.

[Andrew v.s wild]

i dont actually have the rock yet
i was only thinking about picking up some from a alamo aquatics
because it will save me a few bucks
but idk how to cure rock so i might as well just buy live
thanks for the help

[CoryDude]

I went about half and half on my 60 gallon. Took about 6 weeks to fully cycle. Another 2 weeks to get nitrate levels down under 20ppm. Had a lot of die off from the live rock.

[aggman]

i don't get this. i thought dry/base rock had no cycle time because it was basically stripped of life and often times bleached. it is the live rock that needs to be cycled because it is what still has life/die off on it.

i have heard of 'curing' live rock to prohibit the future release of massive amounts of nitrates/phosphates, but that doesn't add up. how is curing for a couple weeks gonna gonna prevent something that usually [according to various posts on multiple forums] takes years to happen?

i used all base rock on my first tank seeding with ~1lb. lr, and had no detectable cycle. sure in the beginning i had nitrates of ~5-10 depending on the two test packs i had [lamotte, api], but never a bloom of any of the standard types expected during cycle. on my second tank, i used all live totoka rock. it is beautiful rock and quite expensive...and it caused more algae than i have ever had. during the cycle i had diatoms, hair, brown slime, cyano, all kinds. now it is fine and looks amazing, but it was a rough sell to keep it.

just my opinion based on experience, it might work different for you.

~alex

[CoryDude]

Alex,

Sounds like I should have used less LR and more dry. I agree that most of my cycle was caused by the live rock die off.

[RayAllen]

My experience in the hobby has told me base/dry rock just needs a simple rinse and add to the aquarium. Dry rock causes no cycle @ all. The Live rock with organisms from bacteria to pods, worms etc... dieing is what you need to worry about.

Put it this way if it was a fresh water tank and you added a pile of dry rocks would you worry about a cycle? No you would not, its not any diffrent with saltwater.

Seed the dry/base rock with about 25% liverock and over a period of months the dryrock will be just as live as the live rock.