growing live rock

[mryg15]

if i am growing my own live rock, from base, how long do i have to wait and how do i know when enough of my rock is live enough to support fish?

 

[blackomne]

Only base :nope: you are going to need to some kind of seed stock. Look for grunge or wonder mud. Google will bring them up for you. Either will activate coralline and get a copepod pouplation going.

 

[mryg15]

also if my tank goes ahead and cycles do i still have to wait? because i only have 10 lbs of live rock and about 40 or 45 lbs of base rock or once it cycles does it mean that it has everything that it needs?

 

[mryg15]

bump

 

[jlem]

Beneficial bacteria will grom on any and everything. Your base rock will become saturated with biological bacteria as fast as anything will. The live rock will help speed the cycle because you will have beneficial bacteria already that will multiply rapidly and colonize the base rock. It really does not take that much biological filtration to keep a tank healthy so get some tesat kits and if they read zero then you can add some livestock. If you want to see if your tank is cycled then throw a piece of shrimp inside the tank and if in a couple days you have no ammonia or nitrite spike then you will know that your tank has cycled. I would take the shrimp out if you have no readings to keep from deteriorating water quality any more than you have to.