Swapping out live rock for Marco rock

[nibes]

Hello all, I have searched for this topic and have kinda come up empty thus far. Anyhow, I have a 20 gallon AIO cube, that currently has some live rock that ,frankly, is not attractive. I managed to put together a new aquascape with dry Marcorock. I am currently in the stages of cycling it in a brute trash can with bottled bacteria, ammonia, and water/ceramic media from my established tank. My established tank has 2 bags of ceramic media and 20 lbs of sand in it currently, is doing a full cycle of this rock actually necessary? Or am I overthinking it? Thank you all for your kind help.
-Mike

 

[eenoo]

I like your idea. Changing all the rock will certainly be a shock no matter how you go about it, so cycling the rock seems like it will just give you a bit of an extra boost.

 

[Waters]

Depends on your fish load but with the ceramic media I am sure it will be fine regarding bacterial filtration....especially in a 20 gallon tank. You might experience some chemistry changes which will prompt algae outbreaks but I think they will be minimal.