Cycle and stocking advice

[brandon429]

https://www.liverocknreef.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=10315


There is some ultra class group B from them

quarter inch thick coralline, grown in a living reef.
nine different visual identifiers right there...which pic of their rock matches yours before cleaning?

so far everything I see from them is legit fully cycled as suspected. Their website pics all show clear benthic growths for sale

 

[fittiger]

Rock source:. https://www.liverocknreef.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=8699

I noticed several pink spots of coralline when I first got it but I really don't see much of it anymore.

 

[fittiger]

That I believe is an additional source of bac too if it was wet pack type. my old sand was aragalive Fiji pink

Digesting 2 ppm ammonia can likely be done by the sand alone so that seemed to be added power for your filtration base not even considering the rock. Plus we have the dosed nitrospira from the bottle bac, all still adds up good to go I bet

Do you have a link to the live rock from the site

Sent above

This black stuff is mostly what I scrubbed off, other than 6 or 7 - 3" clams

 

[brandon429]

Those items are the hallmarks of lengthy submersion. Vid and pic details support this being real live rock although yours doesn't seem exactly the same in pic compares it has similar characters. Those in the vid had more interstitial growth but then again maybe that was fresh off the plane and not cured down yet. The holding bays they use are clean and circulated, possibly not lit.
All details line up for true cycled rock


No red flags I see

Check out that video bottom of his page... it's wow coloration and variation that's how I originally pictured things.

Where your live rock comes from is one thousand times nicer than where mine comes from lol, I'm sold these show up with bac even if yours wasn't quite as crazy looking as their vid, of course the craziest stuff goes on the ad. Legit team there I'd trust them. Begin reefing when a test kit you trust shows zero ammonia, and any you add to the tank as a test will also be acted on by sand and what's been dosed to the water, I think we trust your LR based on origin and get to reefing.


I add frags first, fish must be quarantined as fish people do.