Some relevance and for future knowledge.
hehe, Live rock is just as touchy subject as live sand, deep sand beds and bare bottoms. as tigersax said, no one answer is correct. I have successfully created reef / fish systems with cured live rock, non cured live rock, seeded base rock and nothing. There are SOOO many variables to consider.
To answer one of your questions, No matter what liverock you put in your system, there will ALWAYS be die-off. Just rotating the live rock in an existing tank will produce some die off. Its kind of like taking every house in Albuquerque and flipping it upside down, there will always be casualties. We do not see this because our systems are usually balanced and can accept small spikes.
While your system is capable of supporting life before a cycle is done, during the cycle stage, small spikes can have devastating effects in the long run. If you do not allow sufficient time for the system to reach a balance you CAN throw the system into a wave effect which will take much longer to calm down.
Size of the tank and filtering capabilities are number one in terms of what you can get away with. with the right skimmer, you can usually get away with just popping in some ordered live rock and waiting a few days rather then weeks. The key here is to order little amounts at a time (1-5lbs on a tank less then 50 gallons and 5-10lbs on a 50+ tank) this way you do not shock the system. If you have rather hardy creatures and a clean up crew, you would be fine.
Next comes the "touchy" subject. Man-Made (or also known as test tube) live rock is great, you get much of the good without the bad. Unfortunately this type of live rock CAN lack diversity. When you order live rock, you get an incredible amount of creatures, mostly bacteria and clean up crews. Because every system is different, your live rock will go through a very quick session of natural selection. Critters and bacteria that thrive with your setup will survive, ones that do not favor your setup will die off. This gives you a very strong and very resistant baseline.
This is not to say that test-tube rock is bad, and in most cases test tube rock is a clone of the original as long as the tank it was put into has a strong likeness to the ocean (lighting, salinity, natural predators, alk, calc, mag, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite)
For the environmental conscientious individual, I do not recommend using live rock from full ocean reefs unless you know for sure the rock is being taken from below the photosynthesis zone (areas so low that hard coral growth is impossible.) The rock I purchased a while back was certified by (insert organization that I forgot) to be grown near reef areas in an enclosed / controlled zone using base rock. This produces a very nice rock with a huge diversity without destroying the reefs.
Just go with what you feel is best and start small. Try not to be impatient (easier said then done)
Just as an example, I cycled my current tank 6 weeks after adding the live rock and sand bed. Because of my cyano outbreaks, I think I should have gone for 8 weeks. BUT my tank is finally clearing up (over a year later.) You do have to factor in that I used 150lbs of ordered rock and 150lbs of cured rock.
Anyway, thats my rant...
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8644755#post8644755 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by conner
really? in all of my freshwaters algae wasn't bad in the least bit. I will however ask Rob and/or Eric just in case: sorry I don't believe you that much I'm just really not very patient and excited and the prospect of getting no fish for a couple weeks is not a very happy thing to me. also, what would happen if i put fully cured live rock in the tank? Michael has offered to give me some of his, Eric says it is probably the best kind. man-made, so no parasites, fully cured, and covered in beneficial stuff. but would that go through the die-back phase?
