cycling question

[kukki]

SO! I have my 29 gal cycling finally, have been busy otherwise it would have prolly be fully cycled by now =\

I have my shrimp in there, along with heater and PH and my 3ish inch sand bed.

I got a filter from a friend the other day, to help filter out debris because it was driving me nuts. Just random small stuff floating around, i know it really wouldnt matter during the cycle but its just ugly to look at. Its a bio-wheel filter, only 100 gph does the job just fine.

My question tho is. ... During the cycle i know { well assume } leaving the bio-wheel in is prolly a bad idea because it will remove NH3 and NO2 and harbors alot of NO3 and make water testing very inaccurate. Im only curious if leaving it in would slow down the cycling or do anything unwanted, by removing those from the water. Or at least at a more accelerated pace than say natural.

The entire filter will at least be fully removed by the time im ready to add lr and fish, a skimmer, and all of those sorts of things. Never really planned on having a bio-wheel in my tank for all the negative reasons. But was just wondering about now

oh and no the wheel filter its self has never been used, so it does not already have any sort of bacteria or anything on it, if that helps at all

 

[electrikat]

The bio wheels are usually a problem because they become nitrate factories. That isn't going to be a problem for you because you want the bacteria right now to cycle your tank. You can leave it on if you want since you plan on taking it off when your cycle finishes.

 

[kukki]

hrm okay =)... oh one more thing... should i let my lights run 8 hours or so a day to help growth or will it at all?... no fish or LR or anything

 

[electrikat]

Don't run the lights if you have nothing in it. It will only encourage algae and we don't want more of that than we have to have.