Short or long light cycle for first 10 weeks?

[Fungus]

What's your advice on how long to set my light cycle?

I am now on week 9 of a new 10G reef setup. According to this helpful article,
Aquarium Set-up: Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Reef Aquarium
I cycled my tank with 8 hr light. Lots of hairy algae grew. Then I added a CUC as my first inhabitants at week 7. The article recommends 12 hr of light at this point.

A friend recommended starting at 4hr and increasing to 8 hr over a couple months. This was to allow coraline algae to outcompete less desirable algae.

What do you recommend?

 

[neilanh]

I wouldn't go 12 hours at this point. Especially if you don't yet have any corals that require lots of light.

Personally I don't recommend any lighting during cycling, because it causes algae issues as you appear to have discovered.

I'd run a very limited amount of light, say 5-6 hours tops, until you get that algae under control. If you allow it to keep growing now, you'll never get rid of it and it'll be a constant struggle to deal with later on.

 

[Fungus]

Thanks Neilan. The CUC mowed down the algae in 2 days. Now my rocks are clean and I'm actually wondering if they have enough to eat! But with the algae under control, would you suggest I change my light cycle?