New Tank Cycle

depends.

If you stock up with enough good quality rock, it should have enough bacteria that if you add fish slowly youll never see a spike.

Id much prefer to wait the month or so first and then be able to add a few fish at a time without worry.
 
You still have two choices, either cycle with the rock in your tank, or cycle before its added.

If you get rock from a place such as Figi, youll likely have enough die-off that you will get a good ammonia spike. With rock shipped from florida you wont get much die-off and no spike.

Personally, id rather cycle the tank first, then add the rock. You might still get a small ammonia spike, but you wont kill as many organisims on the rock.
 
Just to stir the pot...

If you haven't seen it, take a look at how I used household ammonia to cycle a brand-new 5-gallon aquarium.

The short version is that after 14 days, the bacterial colony was fully metabolizing 3ML of household ammonia each day in about 11 hours. I was very conservative, and carefully monitored nitrite levels over the next 8 days, while adding daily 1ML maintenance doses of ammonia.

For the full story, with pictures, take a look here.
 
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doesnt matter one way or another. Many people use the cycling time to break in the skimmer and get it setup correctly.
 
You could probably pull the shrimp out now. The smell might last another day, but not long after that.

You could add some carbon to the tank, it will remove most of the smell but not the ammonia.
 
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