Lights and cycle

[jmmnano]

How long should I leave the lights on during the initial cycle

 

[NanoNewb]

People have different views on this. I always ran them how I plan on running them once I have corals and fish. To mess with the timing and brightness(dimmable LEDs). Plus coralline algae and other living creatures on your rock might need light. Just my 2 cents.

 

[jmmnano]

What's your light schedule.

 

[NanoNewb]

What's your light schedule.

My blues come on at 10AM, Followed by my Whites at 11:00 and my moonlights come on at 12. Whites go out at 8PM. Blues go out at 9PM and moonlights out at 11PM. Tank is still fairly new but everything seems to be doing great so far and next to no algae growth that my CUC isnt taking care of.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

No need to run the lights while cycling, they'll just make the diatom bloom bigger.

 

[jmmnano]

Ok,but what about the little critters t

 

[jmmnano]

Sorry, about that last post. So if the lights are off what happens to the little critters that hitchhiked on the live rock? So far I've found a little starfish and a baby snail.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

They don't rely on light at all, in fact the stars prefer dark

 

[NanoNewb]

They will be fine. However some coralline algae might have some die off and some corals/macro algae might as well. Diatoms feed off of silicate in new sand not light from what I understand. Any algae bloom you get you will get when you add lights so I prefer to get it earlier rather than later.

 

[Macscale]

They will be fine. However some coralline algae might have some die off and some corals/macro algae might as well. Diatoms feed off of silicate in new sand not light from what I understand. Any algae bloom you get you will get when you add lights so I prefer to get it earlier rather than later.

They feed of of silicates, but light still helps them spread.

 

[mr_X]

Coralline can live in almost no light. It grows better in my skimmer that is barely hit with a curly-q energy saver bulb than in the DT under LEDs. I vote no lights on during the cycle. It causes more harm than good. Cycling is when your tank's nutrients are at an all time high....that plus light equals nuisance algae. It's not true that you will get the algae no matter what. After the nutrients are purged from the system you have a much less chance of being plagued by algae.