Will adding LR cause cycle?

[skip]

I have a 55 gal tank(about 1 1/2 year old) I only have about 16 pds of LR. I was thinking about ordering the live rock off this website-50lbs. I have several fish: A regal tang, coral beauty, foxface, firefish, dartmouth, and cardinal. I also have some mushrooms that are doing badly due to my high nitrates I assume.(around 60ppm). I have been told on this link that I need to add more LR and More LS(have about 2in LS) My question is, will this cause my tank to cycle and kill my fish???? Or would it be safer for me to buy my LR from LFS one piece at the time?(It's much more expensive-but if it's safer for the fish I'll do it)

 

[efrank]

It may casue a new cycle becasue there will be die off since this site ships LR 2 day. Also the amount of LR you will be adding is substantial.
My question is if he orders online and gets it shipped for tomorrw delivery will he be OK?

 

[broomer5]

Hi skip,
I'm in the middle of adding 50lbs of live rock to my tank right now.
I bought it online - it was shipped to me 2nd day air.
I would never add this live rock directly to an established tank with fish/inverts without fully curing it first, or at least testing it for ammonia.
Even if they ship it next day air, there will be die off - and die off will produce ammonia.
The safe thing to do is to get a large rubbermaid container or clean new 30 gallon trashcan - and cure the rock yourself.
You'll want to remove as much dead plant/animal material from the rock by hand.
There may be somethings that look alive, and you may leave them on - but any sponges or nasty smelling dead stuff you'll want to remove them.
It's as simple as filling the container with saltwater ( correct salinity and temperature just as you would your tank ) and place the new live rock in the container.
Add a powerhead or two, and a heater set at 78-80 F.
Let the rock sit a day or two, and start monitoring the water for ammonia.
Do a 100% water change twice a week or so.
Take out the rock now and then to examine it, and continue to remove anything that is obviously dead.
Depending on whether you got uncured live rock, partially cured live rock, or fully cured live rock - the amount die off will vary greatly - and thus the amount of curing time will vary as well.
Keep curing the rock, doing the water changes, and monitoring the curing tank water for ammonia/nitrite.
Once all levels are zero - the rock is cured and safe to add to an existing marine aquarium.
Even though the readings are zero - I would still add just a piece or two at a time - and not add it all at once.
Maybe paranoid - but better safe than sorry IMO.
If you have a protein skimmer - adding this to the curing tank has been known to help cure the rock too.
If this is too much hassle - as you said you can buy indivdual cured pieces from lfs - but the price will most likely be higher, and it still may not be fully cured.
Smell it - you'll know if it cured or not.
See ya

 

[skip]

Jeeze, Louise, I must be all confused. I thought, half the advantage to live rock WAS all the stuff that came on it. SO.....when everyone on here talks about adding live rock or live sand-I guess they mean to a tank with no fish????? Is is safe for me to put in one piece at a time-cured or not? Maybe one piece every 2/3 weeks?
The only coral in my tank is some mushrooms. By the way, Thanks Broomer for the reply. I went on your web site and saw your pics. I was really impressed. I can tell lots of folks on here put alot of work into this hobby. It's inspiring for us newbies.

 

[striker]

I've always added lr to my tank with very minimal die-off and spikes but that is mainly due to the fact that it was shipped overnight, already cured and in increments of 10-15lbs at a time. I've also added lr from a lfs(just got some a few days ago) but again I'm talking about 5-10lbs. If you're going to add any more than that at the same time I'd suggest a holding tank. If you have a protein skimmer it would definitely be a great help and put it into overdrive. I don't think you have to wait 2-3 weeks every time you add a new piece. Maybe 1-2 weeks.

 

[a&m aggie 04']

i thought it would cause a spike in ammonia until i did it myself. I think it SHOULD but in my case it didnt. I added 25 lbs of uncured live rock to my tank w/o any spike of ammonia. It was shipped to me overnight if that has anything to do with it. Im in Texas so it was hot outside, but it arrived w/o a smell. You tell me why it didnt, im clueless!!!!!!
But i think in most cases a substantial addition of uncured live rock should cause a cycle or minicycle. Not recommended for a tank with inhabitants.

 

[njdiver]

Basically I think you have the idea, the benifit to live rock certainly is all the little living organisims hiding inside and on it.
Cured live rock simply means that the rock is healthy. When its shipped from Fiji to the states, some of the healthy life on it is going to die off which makes in un-curred live rock.
As Boomer mentioned, even if you buy cured rock from mail order, its likely that some of the life on it will suffer in the shipping process, so putting it into a holding tank and letting it cycle through to 'cure' is the safest bet. That way when you put it into your tank your putting in only the good healthy life, and not the die off stuff which will add ammonia, etc to the tank.
_Scott