I don't think the discussion about living/live/cured/seasoned/dead/artificial/other rock as a part of the active aquarium should be lumped together with the initial cycling of the tank.
Today there are a number of suitable products available with more than adequate instructions to help someone with even the most rudimentary understanding of the "Nitrogen Cycle" successfully cycle a tank. Live/living rock makes it easier or maybe provides more instant gratification but even a hunk of shrimp and a dose of patience will get you there.
The issue comes up AFTER the initial cycle. The relative lack of competitive organisms beyond the nitrifying bacteria is what can discourage a newbie. It is hard for someone who just spent days or weeks getting to where they can add fish to suddenly see brown dust all over their pretty new tank. Their first inclination is usually to find some miracle cure to dump in.
With rock that contains a diverse bio-load of organisms, while you may still get diatom/cyano/dino blooms, the blooms will usually be less severe because there are other organisms competing for the same nutrients. In a dry/artificial rock scenario you only have the few opportunistic organisms that have been introduced accidently through stocking/food/in-the-air-around-you and the few you purposely introduced to cycle the tank competing for nutrients.
The nitrogen cycle is only one, albeit an essential one, of the cycles that fuel an aquarium system. Dry/dead/artificial rock and bacteria cultures help with one cycle. Live/living rock helps with most of the cycles.
Today there are a number of suitable products available with more than adequate instructions to help someone with even the most rudimentary understanding of the "Nitrogen Cycle" successfully cycle a tank. Live/living rock makes it easier or maybe provides more instant gratification but even a hunk of shrimp and a dose of patience will get you there.
The issue comes up AFTER the initial cycle. The relative lack of competitive organisms beyond the nitrifying bacteria is what can discourage a newbie. It is hard for someone who just spent days or weeks getting to where they can add fish to suddenly see brown dust all over their pretty new tank. Their first inclination is usually to find some miracle cure to dump in.
With rock that contains a diverse bio-load of organisms, while you may still get diatom/cyano/dino blooms, the blooms will usually be less severe because there are other organisms competing for the same nutrients. In a dry/artificial rock scenario you only have the few opportunistic organisms that have been introduced accidently through stocking/food/in-the-air-around-you and the few you purposely introduced to cycle the tank competing for nutrients.
The nitrogen cycle is only one, albeit an essential one, of the cycles that fuel an aquarium system. Dry/dead/artificial rock and bacteria cultures help with one cycle. Live/living rock helps with most of the cycles.
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