Is this Okay???

[medievalfish]

I have my 55g all set now. 80# of Nature's ocean bio-active live aragonite reef sand and about 5# of dry LR from the LFS. I dropped in some feed to help start the cycle tonight. Now for a few of questions...
1. Do I need to keep feeding the empty tank daily or is once enough? :thinking:
2. Will I be able to add more LR later, and if so do I add in small increments or a bunch at once? :notsure:
3. How quickly will I see growth or life on the LR?

4. What is the difference between cured and uncured LR? ***)
5. Will the life spring forth whether or not it is cured LR?

I look forward to your replies, you have all been so much help in the set-up so far.
Just so I'm clear, my tank is a 55g. SG 1.022, pH 8.4, Temp 84 F, no measureable Ammonia, Nitrites, or Nitrates yet. and I just finished placing the LR about 2 hrs ago.

:happyfish

 

[reefforbrains]

1- no dont feed, you just toss in food to start the cycle of decomp and bacteria growth.
2- better to add in steps so you dont overload your tanks balance.
3- each piece is different eggs, encrusting growths , things that go bump in the night that hide inside the rocks come out ect
4- cures means it has been cycled in a storage tank, when harvested it has all sorts of macro algea, critters inside as hitchikers,coral, sponges ect living on it, moving and rough handling, (afterall it IS a rock) all can create die off of the outer layer and it stinks like high heaven until it cycles just like a new tank. There is so much "life" on and in the rock that the outside dies so cured has the amonia cycled out. uncured is totally raw just ripped from the ocean.
5- certain life will seemingly spontainiously come into play, but it is in form of bacteria and benificial micro organisms unless there is a hitchiker or something visible you can see. For the record if you dry out Live rock, its just a rock.
we all do things differently but most run SG @1.025 but to each thier own. Also temp at 84 seems a bit high. I would suggest more in the line of 79-80. Hope this helps

 

[reefnut]

I'd add a LOT more rock to start with... 5# isn't enough to even get things started IMO. Do you have any other bio-filtration??
The "dry" rock will only become live with bacteria and whatever else comes from the live sand. You will want to add some live rock to seed the base rock.
After fish are added you will only want to add cured live rock.

 

[myrtle beach]

There are threads about adding a raw dead shrimp to start the cycling. You can add more live rock, I did it in bits at a time, but you should have atleast 30lbs. or so and wait about two weeks to test levels. I added bacteria and a booster to speed cycling, worked for me and I didn't have to deal with all the other hassels (expensive live sand, torturing fish, smelly live rock, etc.)

 

[bang guy]

1. Do I need to keep feeding the empty tank daily or is once enough?
Continue to feed the tank daily. Just a very small amount. A little goes a long way. If Ammonia starts to go above 0.5ppm then you're feeding too much.
2. Will I be able to add more LR later, and if so do I add in small increments or a bunch at once?
I would add a bunch of uncured live rock right not. If it's uncured you can stop feeding the tank, if it's cured then continue to feed. If you add rock later then it should be cured or it may result in an ammonia spike.
3. How quickly will I see growth or life on the LR?
It will take a long long time unless you add some live rock to the tank.
4. What is the difference between cured and uncured LR?
Uncured still had a lot of the original organisms on it. Some of these may die, many will survive. I prefer uncured because most places kill off the good animals by curing their rocks at very high ammonia levels. Once a rock has been in contact with high levels of ammonia for an extended period of time I want nothing to do with it.
5. Will the life spring forth whether or not it is cured LR?
Yes. There is more life in uncured rock but there is still a lot of cool critters in cured rock.