How does live rock survive cycling?

[ishmael]

OK. Is this correct or am I still not getting it.
The live rock comes with lots of live organisms out of the ocean. Then,
the supplier tries to get it to the customer so that some of the stuff
survives. Then, the new aquarium owner sticks it in the tank and what has
survived the trip now suffers an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate series of spikes.
A lot more organisms die. After all that, when the water cycles to safe
levels, neat living organisms both simple and complex appear? Sounds
unbelievable.
Please explain.

 

[eric18]

some organisms do die off but then remerge later and the another reason is alot of the mico organsims are very hardy and can survive those periods of harsh waterlevels

 

[artskoi]

It is amazing what abuse live rock will take.When I first got mine I accidently put way too much Baking Soda in and took the Alk off the charts.I did a %100 water change all with the LR still in the tank.I figured it was now just expensive base rock,but after a few weeks things started to reappear.It is amazing.I would assume that micro-organisms can be harbored deep in the rock and stay dormant.Then when conditions get better they surface.It is like bleaching dead coral rock.You can never be sure you got down deep enough to kill everything or if you got all the bleach out at the end.