New Nemos

LR if not totally dry will have some bacteria in it and will aid in cycling the tank as the bacteria litterally doubles in numbers every day. If you must cycle a tank with fish I recommend mollies as they can be slowly adapted from fresh to full salt and then back, but they are far hardier than clowns when it comes to cycling. It's best to use the LR to cycle the tank for several weeks before adding any fish.

LR implies there is life on the rock and if some of it dies that's ammonia and the remaining bacteria and new bacteria will begin the process! If you have a salt tank that's already cycles and established a small rock or bit of substate will make things smoother as will taking some tank water from the established tank and adding it to the new. Bacteria is everywhere and the quicker that new tank cycles and the less those clowns are exposed to potentially hazardous conditions the better it will be for them and you!

 

Any die off on the live rock would start the cycle on the tank, and also any bacteria that was on the rock would help colonize the tank.

 

+1. What they said lol ;D

 

not a big fan of cyling a tank with live fish (I know it's done lots). I just feel it can be inhumane if some of the fish don't make it or can create a headache when damsels are used.

Getting a nice piece of premium LR for a 10g will cycle it much quicker IMO. On my iniital cycle for my 55g I added about 70lbs of nice LR and the cycle happened in a few days.

 

Hurray Karma karma karma karma karma kameleon

Damsels get nasty if you cycle a tank with them because they've had the house for so long they don't want to share once the house is all purdy. Which is why mollies are the best if your going to use fish to cycle as their tame, but again try cycling with live rock first then add fishies once the cycle is done.

 

I actually put in a small 1-2 pound piece of LR from my display the day I put in my Nemos. My main tank is 125 gallons and has around 55lbs of Marco Rocks and around 40-45 pounds of Bali Premium and Fiji LR. It has been in there for the past 4-6 weeks. Few days ago I checked the PH at 7.9-8.0 and ammonia tested 0 PPM. Prior to that I did not test the water but I am assuming my main tank is cycled.
The QT with Nemos has a Ammonia of .25 PPM as of yesterday and PH 8.0
Still have to check nitrate and nitrite levels.
So basically just leave that piece of LR in the QT and just do weekly water changes of 10% while they are in there being monitored?
Another concern is that I have a couple black/white crabs that came with my Bali LR that might cause problems for the Nemos?

 

Live rock is colonized with beneficial bacteria hopefully, if you get what you paid for.

Those beneficial bacteria in the LR and on other substrate break down the bi-products of metabolism by inverts and fish and any decay. One those bi-products of metabolism/decay is ammonia (toxic) to nitrite (also toxic) to nitrate ( non toxic in the appropriate levels per types of inverts and fish) the nitrogen cycle.

So yup live rock does greatly assist in the cycling of a new tank.

 

+1. Very well put! ;D