lights for LR and clean up crew ?????s

[woninil]

It seems everything I hear from one source is contradicted by another source-aarghhh

I think live rock sounds great even if I go FO. I understand the biological filter aspect and personally I like the look-it says SW.

One of the employees at the LFS was actively talking a couple out of purchasing it. He said it needed special lighting and even if you invested in that, fish would eat the life anyway

True? Depends on the fish? What kind of lights?

One board said you can buy clean up crews and have that in your tank while the LR is cycling your aquarium. That way you are less 'anxious' to stick in fish because you have something to watch

Is that feasible or will the spikes kill those critters as well?

I have a 55 gal and SOME experience with freshwater(29 g cichlid tank)and ponds

 

[Walrus]

It seems everything I hear from one source is contradicted by another source-aarghhh

I think live rock sounds great even if I go FO. I understand the biological filter aspect and personally I like the look-it says SW.

One of the employees at the LFS was actively talking a couple out of purchasing it. He said it needed special lighting and even if you invested in that, fish would eat the life anyway

True? Depends on the fish? What kind of lights?

Live rock will funtion properly under any lighting conditions. If you buy LR with coral already on it, then that piece of coral may need special lighting to survive. If your planning on doing a fish-only (FO) tank then you can be selective on which LR you purchase and avoid any rock with light specific corals, this will also save you money (a rarity in this hobby). If your working on a tight budget then you can buy some unseeded rock, like lace rock and part LR. The unseeded rock will eventually become live rock; the time it takes depends on your mixture of live rock to unseeded rock.

One board said you can buy clean up crews and have that in your tank while the LR is cycling your aquarium. That way you are less 'anxious' to stick in fish because you have something to watch

Is that feasible or will the spikes kill those critters as well?

Inverts have a much tougher time handling the spikes associated with the cycling process then fish do. I would cycle your tank using a raw cocktail shrimp, once it cycles add your live rock. Once you add your LR you may experience another mini cycle. Once your numbers have leveled off i would then add your cleanup crew. Just remember to proceed slowly when adding animals to your tank, adding everything at one time is highly ill advised IMHO.

I have a 55 gal and SOME experience with freshwater(29 g cichlid tank)and ponds

 

[mogurnda]

Although I used the method Walrus suggests to cycle my last tank, you can also cycle it by buying "uncured" live rock (in which all the stuff that died during shipping is still there), and allow it to cure in your tank. It can often be less expensive to buy a box of the stuff and throw it in.

I also agree that your cleaning crew may suffer if added during the curing process, although I have seen hitchhiking hermits, crabs and snails survive the ammonia spikes.

 

[GoBlue]

What about putting cured live rock into a brand new aquarium w/ aragonite substrate? It seems that the bacterial population should take off & spread to the substrate. What's the purpose of adding a shrimp to the system? Do you really still need to "feed" the little critters?

Jim

 

[mogurnda]

In theory, if you put perfectly cured live rock into the system, it's ready for livestock. The shrimp is really for getting a dead system running.

I used dead sand and rock, with some live sand from my existing tank, and added some rotting seafood to get the tank cycled. That way, when I added the live rock (from Tampa Bay, so it was full of living stuff), there would be bacteria already established to deal with the ammonia generated by the curing process. Very small ammonia spike, and the wildlife went through the curing process just fine.