Lights ON or OFF

[spongebobby]

Should you run your lights while cycling your tank with LR? Been cycling for a 1 1/2 weeks with 15 lbs. LR, with lights on. I'm getting 55 lbs more Thurs. Should i have the lights on or off. If on, for how long?
This is a 55 AGA, light is a coralife 260w Lunar.

 

[grimlock3000]

Only run half the lights for a few hours a day. Also, do you still have fish in that tank??? It is really importnat that you NOT add all that rock with fish in the tank.

 

[RocketSeason]

i ran my lights on timers. I was running 8 hour days. worked pretty well.

always use timers. especially on a SW tank. When you get your fish in there you can push it up to 12 hour days. (although I am running mine at 10 hour days now to help fight an algea attack.)

welcome to AA!!!

 

[spongebobby]

No i have taken them out(that was fun). Those have got to be the hardest fish to catch. I have given them to a friend who has a tank that has cycled. He says i can have them back whenever but after the job of catching them i think i will just purchase more.

I will be putting in 45 lbs of Fiji LR from Live Aquaria and 10 lbs of Gulf and Keys LR from LR.com. So you think 3-4 hrs a day will be enough?

Thanks for all the help...

 

[ilikefish]

i wouldnt light the tank with curing live rock.If you light the tank its just gonna produce more unwanted algae and you are already going to be dealing with that because of the high nitrates from die off.

 

[foma2000]

ide run the lights for about 8 hours a day. i dont wory about the extra algea because your already going to have to deal with it so whats a bit more

 

[grimlock3000]

No i have taken them out(that was fun). Those have got to be the hardest fish to catch. I have given them to a friend who has a tank that has cycled. He says i can have them back whenever but after the job of catching them i think i will just purchase more.

Sounds like Damsels? Those can be tough to catch

I will be putting in 45 lbs of Fiji LR from Live Aquaria and 10 lbs of Gulf and Keys LR from LR.com. So you think 3-4 hrs a day will be enough?

I did 6 hours during my cycle and my coraline did great. 3 or 4 would probably work depending on the LR. I never felt the need to go longer or shorter with mine so I stuck with it. If you get nice rock with a lot of coraline and other life on it, running the lights will help these alive. It might cause more algae too, but you can deal with the algae easily once you add the clean up crew. By not running any lights, you chance losing life that is photosynthetic. There is no right answer to this, just personal preference. I personally think that leaving some light on is a better idea, though I understand the people who say no light at all is better.

One more thing, if you have seperate actinic bulbs, you can run those for even longer without the risk of causing algae. Not much unwanted algae is going to grow under actinics, and the actinics alone will keep most stuff on the rock alive.

 

[MarineFlake]

I am currently cycling a new 29G with just a couple lbs of lr. However, I stole a hob filter from my 75G which has the 'bio' media in it. My tank should be ready to sustain life as is. Lights have been run for ~5 hours / day and on day 2 I had noted some coraline. The whole thing will be up a week this fri.

GL!

 

[IfoundNemo]

I cured 45lbs fiji rocks which i also bought from Liveaquaria.com in a 30 gal container w/o lights for nearly 2 weeks. Now the rocks are in my main tank, and lights are on from 5pm to 11pm everyday. The coralines are beggining to grow again. So i guess it also depends on what kind of LR you are curing.

 

[spongebobby]

I'm getting 45 lbs Fiji from Liveaquaria.com anf 10 lbs Gulf/Keys from LR.com. Should all be here tommorrow. I realize that there will be some die-off but i am only 1 1/2 weeks into my cycle. Hoping it will be alright. I am just going to run my lights for 4 hrs a day , then only the actinics for the rest of the 10 hrs. then the Lunar lights at night.

Another question i have is how long after i get my LR in can i take out the bio-bale in my Bak-Pak 2. I will have 70 lbs total LR in a 55 gal AGA. I want to put the heater in there.

thanks....

 

[grimlock3000]

If you want to use the Bio Bale for now, just take it out once your tank is cycled.

Personally, I think you can easily do without the Bio Bale and just let your LR and substrate collect the bacteria. IMO, the ammount of bacteria that the Bio Bale can hold is meaningless when you have 70 pounds of LR in the tank. Not to mention the Bio Ball can trap and collection waste that might end up in the skimmer if it was allowed to flow back through the tank.

 

[sipe]

Did you guys like the Liveaquaria rock? Any problems or recommendations about it? What would you guess the volume on the rock was?

Figured I should start my 75gal with about 90 lbs and then supplement with another 40+ from liverocks.com when almost done with initial curing. Will add cleaner dudes when ammonia levels down

I am planning on running the PCs during the curing process and supplementing with kalkwasser to encourage coralline growth. Did this before with great results

 

[spongebobby]

I will be getting my rock tommorrow from Liveaquaria . I will take a pic for you and post it on this thread. I ordered the 45 lbs. of Fiji. I also ordered 10 lbs of Gulf and Keys from LR.com. I will post pics of both for you. From what i've read Liveaquaria has decent rock just not alot of hitchhickers. But for $150.00 for 45 lbs. hard to pass up. I'm basically doing the same thing you are i think.

 

[sipe]

You go spongebobby!!! Kudos to you!!!

Share the knowledge!!!

I am probably going with reefermadness next week (the name is catchy and makes me hungry) to start and then over to LR once the long distance stuff cures well.