Seeding LR, need advice

Ok, so I'm a total noobie to marine aquariums AND forums haha. I have a 75 gallon with around 75 lbs of dry rock and 10 lbs of live rock I got a LFS. I'll upload some pics so you guys can watch my progress and give advice. I pretty much just want to know extra things I can do to speed up the seeding process. All I'm doing now is letting the LR sit and waiting for the magic to happen. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

best advice i can give you is to be patient. know that you will be staring at a tank with only rock in it for a solid 3 months. you can try adding all sorts of products but im personally against this. let nature do its thing in its time. besides as time goes on you will start to see strange little life forms slowly appear on your rocks.

 

+1

Throw a raw cocktail shrimp into your tank to give the bacteria something to feed on. That will help it to grow and spread.

 

Yea I had a feeling you guys might say that It's all good though because I'm a patient person. Also, thanks for the input.

@Mr. Bill, have you done the raw shrimp thing with no problems? I've read both good and bad things about doing that. If you've done it with no problems I'll give it a try, how long should I leave the shrimp in the tank?

 

I left it in my tank until I detected a spike in ammonia. I then removed it and waited for ammonia and nitrite to drop back to zero. I've cycled all my tanks that way, as I've never liked the idea of using a live fish.

 

This may be a stupid question, but is there any chance my tank will be cycled "before" the live rock spreads to all the dry rock? Or while the LR spreads it's putting off too much ammonia and other waste?

 

Your tank will most definitely be cycled before the live rock "spreads". The nitrifying bacteria multiplies fairly quickly, usually within a few weeks. The coralline algae and other macro-organisms, however, will take much longer. Just keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite levels. Once they spike and then drop back to zero, you'll be ready to add 1 or 2 small fish.

 

you can move the live rock around to different parts of the the tank, let sit for a few days move again. I'm not sure how much it will help, but it will help a little and it will give you something to do while you are waiting for the cycle to complete.

 

Thanks again Mr. Bill, I'm really enjoying reading all these forums, I don't know how people got by without them before they existed.

 

good luck in the build! i'm new too and almost as far along as you with my 75. I'll def be following along to watch your progress!

And I agree, these forums really are amazing aren't they?!