will die off cause deaths?

[latazyo]

will die off form my live rock cause the other critters in the live rock to die as well...resulting in dead rock?

this is my first experience...so excuse the dumb question

[SpongeBob]

Anything that is going to cause a spike if Ammonia is not good.

[latazyo]

see...this is my main question...wherever I read about the ammonia cycle, it seems that there is regularly a large ammonia spike

so does this spike kill off all of the critters in my live rock?

and during the spike, should I be doing pretty healthy water changes frequently?

[fishfreek]

Die off will cause an ammoina spike if your bio filter is not up to the task of processing the ammonia as it is beign produced.

In new tanks the bio bed is usually not up to the task thus ammonia increases. The more sensitive and weaker creatures die due to this ammonia spike and only make maters worse. Over a short period your bio bed will catch up with the ammoinia production rate and the ammonia will start to lower.

When this happens the nitrite levels will climb. Nitrite is just as toxic as ammonia.

The same will happen with nitrite as the bactera bed grows to handle the production of both.

To keep as much life on your LR as possble its good to do regular water changes to try to keep the ammona level down. Durring the curing process of your LR you probably wont be able to keep it at 0 but it will help to keep it as low as you can.