[Michael]

Hi, is live rock necessary? We are recreating our tank on account of our loss and I have heard that a lot of people use live rock because of some beneficial qualities. I asked a store about it and they said I had to buy a different tank to keep the live rock in for a few months before adding it to our 55 gallon tank... that was kind of a turn off.

What does live rock do? Can I just buy it from a store and put it in the tank, or is there some kind of... process involved?

Thanks

 

[zeb_nz]

have you kept a salt water aquarium before?
basically LR is fully of tiny microorganisms that help with your biological filter, you need to cycle if for 6 weeks before you can slowly add fish, you need around 1.5 pounds to the gallon, if you have a salt water tank operating and you add uncured LR then you will cause nitrate spikes and will all the fish, you can put all your LR in a big tub and cycle is that way with e heater and some power heads, but you do not need another glass tank.

 

[Michael]

Why don't they sell it "pre-cured" at stores to avoid this 6 week waiting period? Our tank is already cycled because we had fish but apparently a new one we bought brought in a disease and they all died. We have treated the water with a product called Cure All. We were told we should start with a few damsels again and wait a number of weeks before adding more substantive fish. Could I have the live rock in the tank with the damsels during this period without "curing" it in a tub or seperate tank first?

 

[zeb_nz]

do it without damsals, fish get very ill and stressed in fish cycle, please do not do it. add your LR and wait 6 weeks then add 1 damsal and go from their,
damsals are hell in the aquarium trade, they will bully other fish.

 

[Lupin]

The time cycling finishes really depends. The only damsel I'd recommend is Green Chromis. Hardy as the other damsels. But I wouldn't cycle with fish as we are just harming the fish.

 

[crazie.eddie]

Hey Blue, Zeb...Glad to see you 2 here

Regarding LR or Live Rock. As Zeb stated, it's full of little critters, micro-organisms, sometimes shrimp, etc., which helps with biological filtration.

LR is used in sumps, becuase it's a more natural form of filtration. You may wish to add it into your tanks as well for more biological filtration, but it's not necessary. Just the more LR, the better biological filtration. When people add LR to their tanks, it tends to be more a reef setup.

 

[usmc121581]

Adding live rock doesn't tend to be a reef system. People add live rock to there fish only system because it is more enjoyable to look at then base rock and on top of that it acts as a filter itself. As for the curing process if it is a good LFS they are ready cure it before they sell it anyway or the distibutar will do it before they sell it any way. You can buy uncured live rock but it is cheaper then cured rock. There is this substance that you can use to cycle a tank. Its called BIOZYME when you setup the tank add it and about a week to 2 you can start to add fish but SLOWLY. When I started my reef system over a year ago I used the same stuff added the fish and nothing ever went wrong. If you do decide to use damsels to cycle make sure that it is a fish you want to keep because most people after they are done cycling they wont to remove the damsel and end up destroying there setup tring to remove them. Like Blue said go with the green chromis The have 5 of them a they are very peaceful fish. Get luck with your setup.