Swapping out live rock for Marco rock

[nibes]

Hello all, I have searched for this topic and have kinda come up empty thus far. Anyhow, I have a 20 gallon AIO cube, that currently has some live rock that ,frankly, is not attractive. I managed to put together a new aquascape with dry Marcorock. I am currently in the stages of cycling it in a brute trash can with bottled bacteria, ammonia, and water/ceramic media from my established tank. My established tank has 2 bags of ceramic media and 20 lbs of sand in it currently, is doing a full cycle of this rock actually necessary? Or am I overthinking it? Thank you all for your kind help.
-Mike

 

[eenoo]

I like your idea. Changing all the rock will certainly be a shock no matter how you go about it, so cycling the rock seems like it will just give you a bit of an extra boost.

 

[Waters]

Depends on your fish load but with the ceramic media I am sure it will be fine regarding bacterial filtration....especially in a 20 gallon tank. You might experience some chemistry changes which will prompt algae outbreaks but I think they will be minimal.

 

[shcrimps]

other than maybe some algae initially i think you’d be fine especially if you’re “curing” the rock
tank is pretty small and if you’re still worried about it you can break up the live rock and keep some in the tank for a week or two