question about live rock and cycling my tank.

I was thinking that I could buy "cured" live rock from my LFS or a person with a tank up and running and put it into my tank and it would basically be cycled or go through a small cycle. I also plan on putting in a product like biospira or something of the sort.

I was talking to a kid who was working at my lfs today and he said that wouldnt work as he didn't think the cured live rock was "cycled". He also said he wasn't sure and I would have to talk with someone who was. I had to leave but I'm thinking he was wrong about the cured rock not being "cycled".

Any thoughts on this would be great.

 

Yes, cured live rock is cycled.

That said, it's still not a good idea to place cured LR in your tank and start stocking immediately on the assumption that everything is fine. When LR is moved, it most likely will have some die-off and needs time to re-cure. Some even still place a raw cocktail shrimp in the tank and force an ammonia spike; at the very least, that should boost the bacteria population and still won't take as long to cycle as with dead base rock.

 

ty Bill,

I was already planning on adding amonia and keeping it added until I started getting zero readings of amonia then I was going to start adding fish.

 

Buying cured live rock will only make the cycle time shorter, but the tank will still have to cycle. Don't try to rush things. Impatience will case nothing but the tank to crash, dead fish and lost money out of your pocket. You have to take your time. No one can buy live rock and water and put fish in the same or very next day. Unless you buy a tank that is up and running from someone else, then you will have to cycle the tank. I would advise not to buy another up and running tank, because you maybe buying someone else's problems, some may disagree. Just take your time, it will pay off in the long run.

 

I might not being very clear. I'm not trying to cycle and stock in a day or evern 2 or 3. My goal is to avoid that brown yuky looking live rock and curing it, scrubbing it and putting up the stench I've read about. I understand there will be a cycle and it will be 3-4 weeks. I just want to figure and do the easiest method.

 

Point well taken.

As for cycle-booster additives, the only one I would recommend is Microbacter7. Several long-time reefers here on 3Reef swear by it. So many others tend to fail, mainly because they use the wrong strain of bacteria.

 

I've never understood what people mean when they say "The tank smells", I have an open top tank and have never smelled anything like what people say. I actually feel kinda stupid when I catch myself "sniffing" over the top, just to see if it smells funny.......