first is cycling saltwater similar like freshwater and should I use a hardy cheap fish like a damsel to cycle my newly setup saltwater aquarium?
wow thanks a lot for the info so would a dwarf lion fish need live rock?. and is there any special care for live rock?. it would be awesome to see the hitch hikers lol.. but ya im barely gonna try to get in the hobby but first wanna get all the basics down ..etc.honestly there is no point on spending money on live bacteria cultures in saltwater aquariums, the best thing to do is buy a decent live sand, then a good ratio of live rock is usually 1 pound per gallon, however make sure you arrange the rock with more or less depending on the needs of the organisms going into the tank.
after you arrange your live sand and rock within the aquarium, you will fill It with SW, then turn on all your filters , pumps, heaters,....etc, finally as a better alternative to a live cycle, place a small pinch of fish food within the aquarium, this will seed the water with ammonia, and give the nitrifying bacteria something to eat while the colonies grow. periodically you will want to check ammonia levels, and once they hit zero your aquarium is successfully cycled.
unlike FW in a SW aquarium you will have "hitch hikers" come in within your live rock, such as polychaete worms, various tube worms, copepods, small crustaceans, and every once in a while people have larger things come in on live rock such as fish, bi valves, echinoderms cephalopods, one of my co-workers had a baby snowflake eel come in on his. throughout the cycling process you will be able to watch these emerge throughout the rock and into the new environment you have created.