Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ron v
I gonna jump in here where I have no business. I know nothing about saltwater.... But I have questions.
Can you cycle with ammonia, like you do freshwater? If so, why not do that and avoid stressing whatevery is alive on the "live rock"?
|
Good questions.
Yes, you can use ammonia with SW exactly as you would FW (Best way with a fish only setup as with FW), but you win either way with live rock.
If your live rock is well cured then you get an instant cycle, the bacteria has survived and probably everything else in the rock has.
If your live rock is badly cured then the die off from the rock, sponges, bits of crab leg, divers who got lost on the reef
etc etc provide the ammonia but you get the added benefit of the bacteria left on the rock giving you a good head start with the cycle.
Even with badly/uncured rock you put in your tank you'll get plenty of stuff sprouting/crawling/spreading in a few months.
Unless you have a hidden fish (It has been known......fish swam out of a piece of LR at my LFS and they have yet to id it.) inside the live rock then there's not much that can get very stressed during the process.
Then you get allsorts of odd stuff popping up out the rock
