Cycle/LR Question

[dustins]

Hi,
I'm new to the hobby and need to know one more thing before I can start my tank:

Do I need to cycle my tank before I put in my Live rock or can I do it with the Live rock in it for the whole cycle????

Thanks in advance,

Dustin

[Andrew]

Adding liverock to the tank will start the cycle for you if not fully cured.

[Shagsbeard]

You should learn a lot more that that one thing before you start your tank. Learn a lot more.

You're not cycling the water... you're cycling the system. The cycle that we're talking about is the nitrogen cycle. It should make a complete circle, but we typically start it at "food". Note that the following is simplified, but you can find a better description in books or in the chemistry forum.

"food" is turned into ammonia, either through decomposition or through being eaten and processed by animals. Micro-organisms aerobically break down ammonia into nitrates and anaerobically break nitrates down to nitrogen gas. That's really basic, but it gets the idea down.

What you are doing when you let your tank "cycle" is giving the bacteria time to sort out how many of each type of bacteria is needed. Bacteria grows on the rocks and surfaces of the tank, so you need your rocks in to be "cycling". Once the bacteria get settled in, and you test the water and have no ammonia left, you can slowly introduce fish. Don't put any fish in a tank that shows signs of ammonia. Nitrates need to be low if you are going to have corals and inverts.

But you need to learn a lot about this before you start.

[bertoni]

If the tank has live rock, "cycling" the tank just means waiting for the die-off on the rock, if any, to rot away. You could protect the animals on the live rock somewhat by setting up a standard filter, like a bio-wheel, and get it going, then add the live rock. Most people, including me, don't bother.

I'd just set the tank equipment up, get the SG and temperature, etc, under control, and then add the live rock. You'll need to ditch or store some of the water, but that's not a big deal.

[dustins]

Thanks.