Mixing Live and Base Rock

I have about 120lbs of base rock. I would like to seed it with some live rock because I'm not patient enough to wait for it to grow enough bacteria itself. Plus I kind of like the idea of neat surprises and coralline on the rock. Now I plan on carefully selecting 50lbs of live rock from established tanks locally so hopefully I can avoid any aiptasia or caulerpa problems. When I put them in the tank together, should I immediately put some damsels in the tank to keep the live rock going and supplied with waste? Or should I leave it just rock so it will die-off some and start a new cycle over? I don't want to nuke nice rock. Thanks!

 

If you transfer it between tanks there should be very little die off,it will def speed up any cycle

 

Should I add any livestock at the same time to keep the live rock fed, or should I not worry about that and just let it cycle?

 

can always use food grade shrimp to help the cycle along instead of damsels

 

There probably won't be much cycle if you just transfer the lr over and are using live sand IMO
I would just throw in a damsel and go from there

 

i would put the live rock in the tank, and then the next day begin testing... that would tell you when its safe, because the water will need time to situate(sp) wait a day or two and see what the tests say before killing and helpless fish. thats my 2cents.

 

I would +1 these remarks in smaller set ups, but

started 8 x salt water tanks over the last decade and a half
always added YTB Damsels within 1 week of tank being set up
I have never set up a tank smaller than 4ft
I have never lost a Damsel during the cycle ( honestly)
my current pair that I have in my present tank have been with me 2 years and 3 weeks (I know the exact date they where purchased on)

my opinion is that a single Damsel in a 120 gallon tank is going to be exposed to very low levels of ammonia and Nitrites whilst the bacteria population is increasing to deal with those wastes ( if the live rock is cycled and stays wet during transfer)

If I had lost a Damsel, Id be using alternative methods to cycle my tanks these days.

Steve

 

Belive it or not my 10 gallon started as all base rock (ithink it's the best way to go so no pest or un wanted algae or pest)

Here's a picture of it


the white rocks on the left was added last week

and if you dont belive me go to my 10 gallon threads and there's pictures of when it was all white

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/my-10-gallon-55107.html