Cycling question

[eliaslikesfish]

So I already have a mature tank, bunch of lps and some softies with 2 clowns and a midas blenny. When I got into the hobby however my LFS set me up and gave me the salt water, sand, and live rock. they said run the pump with no light for a month and don’t add anything to kick start the cycle, waited for exactly one month and then added my first fish and then corals a purple months later; since then, I have never had an issue with a fish and at the beginning just some minor issues with corals as I needed to get my parameters steady. Question is: I see almost everyone post about adding things at the start to get the cycle going and I just waited a month and the nitrites and ammonia were at 0 by then by themselves, so why do people add things? just to make the process faster?

 

[homer1475]

You need an ammonia source to kick start the bacteria. They need food to multiply.

You started with live rock, which had some die off(ammonia source) when you took it from the LFS to your tank. That small amount of time it was out of water, would start minuscule things to die creating ammonia.

What people are adding is either bacteria to jump start the cycle, or an ammonia source to kick start the bacteria to grow.

 

[eliaslikesfish]

You need an ammonia source to kick start the bacteria. They need food to multiply.

You started with live rock, which had some die off(ammonia source) when you took it from the LFS to your tank. That small amount of time it was out of water, would start minuscule things to die creating ammonia.

What people are adding is either bacteria to jump start the cycle, or an ammonia source to kick start the bacteria to grow.

So i’m not mistaken in thinking that doing a cycle with only live rock is perfectly fine? I mean, I figured since my tank has always looked great and been healthy.

 

[homer1475]

Perfectly fine.

Actually with actual ocean live rock, you can almost skip the cycle as the rock will have enough bacteria to process a small amount of ammonia.