Seeding dryed live rock

[krisko]

I have about 100lbs of live rock that was dryed, I'm curing it in my 95g tank right now, along with 60 pounds of sand and nothign else.

Im wondering how much live rock should I buy from my LFS to put in my tank, to help seed the dry live rock? Should I wait for my tank to finish cycling before I put it in. Or should I stick it in now?

[fleming3]

Hey Krisko - I think this is probably subjective - as I haven't really seen any guidelines as to a "standard" amount. I think it probably boils down to how long you want to wait. A smaller amount will take longer to seed the tank.
I think it's probably better to put as much in there as you can because it will give you more bio-filtering capacity.

I did the same thing with my tank. I have a 90G that I used Marco Rocks in. I added about 20 lbs to mine to give it a kickstart, and then added about 45 grams of raw cocktail shrimp to make sure I had a nice robust ammonia spike. When the spike went down despite the fact that the shrimp had not decayed fully, I knew I had found the right mix of dry vs. live to handle the ammonia.

[bertoni]

If you just want bacteria, and are willing to wait, the tank will be fine with zero live rock. Live rock is useful for adding coralline and various animals, but it's possible to buy various live cultures that might make a fine substitute. Good live rock can add a variety of animals that the cultures won't match, though. It's a personal choice.

[discocarp]

I use just a single small piece.

[wooden_reefer]

For bacteria, if you don't have a fellow aquarist who can give you seed, you can buy just a pound or two of LR.

I started with moist garden soil.

For others, you are better off adding after all the rock has been cycled.

[lordofthereef]

If you are having no die-off (which can generally be observed by checking ammonia levels) you will also need some sort of food source for the bacteria to populate.