Instant cycle with LFS live rock?

[Tham121988]

Hello,

I have a nano (7 Gal) aquarium I just set up. I haven't added any water etc yet. I just received the stand etc. I have a lot of pukani rock from a previous broken down tank, but am not really wanting to wait that long to cure, then to cycle. I have heard that adding established live rock to a new aquarium will basically turn it into an established aquarium. Is this the case? If so, this is what one of my LFS have told me they had available. Which one would be best for this process to be as quick as possible?


We have a few varieties of established liverock. Base liverock is $6.99/lb.. Real Reef (man made with replicated coraline) $9.99/lb. We also have Life Rock that is dry but seeded with beneficial bacteria enzymes that becomes live when introduced into the tank.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

 

[brandon429]

Yes it does, here's whole thread on it

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-microbiology-of-reef-tank-cycling.214618/


Transport the rock home wet and it will xfer just as if it never left the original tank

If you pick rock with coralline vs no coralline, that will resist algae much better than rock with open white real estate where algae takes hold first

Always hand guide algae out of the tank from the beginning, lift your rock out in a tank that small and clean it occasionally to access rock and kill algae

That whole thread is a cycling thread that uses no test kits...you don't have to purchase any test kits to cycle any aquarium fw and sltwtr, dry materials or live, no test cycling is covered there for both. Once you know how to command any cycle to be completed by an assigned pre known date, whether a test kit reflects that or not won't matter. Once you can command any tank to cycle, then you are free to rescue them from invasion, or move them across the state etc.


Or even mail whole complete packed and matured ecosystems across the us. Packed with wet paper


You can do mind boggling things when commanding cycles


To correctly know where and when a cycle will and won't occur means you are free to do everything in between as often as you need to

 

[siggy]

I have always used alive rock and live sand (bagged) and live bacteia in a bottle. Not sure if I would do it any other way. Take a look at the LFS tanks and look for aptasia and bubble algae if its present walk away and look for rock in cleaner environments...best of luck

 

[Tham121988]

Awesome! I moved from a small town with no local fish store to a larger city with a ton of LFS. I have the choice of several. I've never been inside a coral store before, yet these places have tons of frag tanks. I am really excited to see all of them in person. I will go check in out Monday and hopefully find some valid pieces to bring home and start the cycle! Thanks for the link!

 

[Tyler Sullivan]

I do dry rock, bacteria in a bottle and lastly water from my est. tanks. Honestly in this hobby, waiting for a month at least is better for the tank. Dont use livestock if you can help it.

 

[mcarroll]

We have a few varieties of established liverock. Base liverock is $6.99/lb.. Real Reef (man made with replicated coraline) $9.99/lb. We also have Life Rock that is dry but seeded with beneficial bacteria enzymes that becomes live when introduced into the tank.

No, no and no. Not if you can get actual live rock – as in live from the ocean. If you're not gonna do that you may as well make the rock yourself from coral sand and cement like @Paul B and others. Dead "live" rock like you're being offered so far is no better....not even if it's painted pink....not even if it's soaked in aquarium water for 6 months.

Real-deal live rock is definitely what you want.

 

[siggy]

Real-deal live rock is definitely what you want.

Any suggestions were you can still get ocean rock? I bought from Live rock & reef

 

[Tham121988]

No, no and no. Not if you can get actual live rock – as in live from the ocean. If you're not gonna do that you may as well make the rock yourself from coral sand and cement like @Paul B and others. Dead "live" rock like you're being offered so far is no better....not even if it's painted pink....not even if it's soaked in aquarium water for 6 months.

Real-deal live rock is definitely what you want.

So none of these varieties are good?

 

[siggy]

So none of these varieties are good?

Well alot of rock is dead rock that was thrown in a tank for a couple of weeks so its just seeded, what I should have mentioned is if a rock has a good coverage of coraline you know its been in for awile, I buy mine online and have it shipped but it will cost $$ some times LFS will put in an order for it and sell it. Your old rock is already cured,
get you tank started with a couple of pieces and find that nice coraline rock wile shopping around.....

 

[mcarroll]

So none of these varieties are good?

You only have a 7 gallon tank, so it's gonna take about 1 piece of live rock and you're set. So don't skimp.

You mentioned that you have lots of LFS's around.....either it's time for a LFS-crawl you so you can see what they all have, or you need to spend a little time calling around. Someone has real live rock. (I hope.)

If not, you can definitely still get it online in various manners.

Premium Aquatics appears to sell very clean, cured live rock by the pound.
L-PUKANI-CUWalt Smith Pukani Live Rock - Cured / Cleaned - Nano/XLG

The other main way would be from one of the outfits that cultures dead rock in the ocean down in FL. Google will help with that. This is the most work, BTW, but also with the greatest upside potential. Much better than the cleaned/cured stuff IF you're up for it. (Cleaned/cured is great if you're not up for the TLC that fresh rock needs!!!)

 

[mcarroll]

Live rock & reef

They look pretty good!

There have to be more – that's the kind of place I was talking about. tbaquatics.com isn't coming up for me...are they still around?

 

[siggy]

There have to be more – that's the kind of place I was talking about. tbaquatics.com isn't coming up for me...are they still around?

I looked for fun a week ago and diddent see much, even the Florida guy on Ebay is MIA

 

[Tham121988]

I will certainly go check out all the LFS and see what is around. The seem massive so I'm sure someone local has some. If not, I will look into the pukani. Thanks for the advice.

 

[mcarroll]

i had the wrong address, I think.

Try http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/