ssick92
New member
Actually the cycle is quicker because there isn't the die-off that comes from liverock in my limited experience and quite a bit of reading. I did buy a pod culture and green water after the cycle to kick off some microverts. They'll also come naturally with your corals too of course.
This isn't true. When using dry rock, the bacteria needs to grow and build great enough numbers to convert all the ammonia that would be created in the tank. Using live rock shortcuts this process because the bacteria is already in large enough numbers in the rock. The amount of die-off is negligible unless the rock stays out of water for like 2+ hours.
If you can get live rock from a quality source, I would go this route over dry rock (but that is just my opinion). Everyone always talks about the "pests" that come on live rock, but nobody ever brings up the fact that live rock introduces many beneficial hitchhikers (bristleworms, feather dusters, sponges, etc.).
I used 100% live rock from an established in my tank (8lbs) and didn't even register a cycle.