Questions about Live Rock

[shesacharmer]

I'm feeling a little confused and hope some of you with years of experience can set me straight.

My understanding is that LR has bacteria living inside all the way through the rock not just on the surface. It seems to me that it takes years for the bacteria to make their way there and the older your live rock the more stable and helpful it will be in filtering your tank.

How is it that so many people are recommending cycling new tanks with base dry rock or artificial rock adding only one or two seed LR? Won't this method require more than a year, or 5, to gain the stability of a tank started with living LR?

Help me out here...

[bnumair]

bacterial resides in deep caves of the rock yes that is true. But bacteria lives in same ratio/proportion as ammonia and nitrites being produced.
example if ammonia load is heavy bacteria will hurry up and multiply fast and convert it from ammonia to nitrites. another type of bacteria will do the same and try to reproduce fast and convert nitrites to nitrates.
Such bacteria can multiply and double its colony within 15 hrs. (under normal circumstances)
This is why when cycling a tank it can take anywhere from few weeks to few months.

[JMorris271]

How high would peaking be usually? Is there a certain number to expect to see/

[thegrun]

How high would peaking be usually? Is there a certain number to expect to see/

Are you referring to the ammonia levels? If so I like to see an ammonia spike of somewhere between 1 and 3 ppm, but if you are starting with live rock that is already partially or fully cycled you may not see an ammonia spike that high. I would try to avoid ammonia spikes over 6ppm, as it seems to slow down the cycle. Regardless of how high your ammonia spike gets, it is always best to add fish slowly.