Age old question : Lights ON or OFF during cycling.

[madreefer11]

I have dead pukani rock,

People say lights OFF as this will promote algae but some people say lights on so as to get rid of the algae bloom stages you will get anyway later,

so on or off?

 

[Flippers4pups]

I have dead pukani rock,

People say lights OFF as this will promote algae but some people say lights on so as to get rid of the algae bloom stages you will get anyway later,

so on or off?

Nothing wrong with lights off during a cycle.

 

[jtietz]

Off. And covered is the best results ive gotten. Lets slime coat cover the rocks without algae growing.

 

[acro-ed]

I vote off. I attribute my battle with Dino's several years ago in my old 150g to running too strong of lighting on a brand new tank started from dead rock.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Off last thing you want to deal with when setting up a tank is algae everywhere. Only time i would think of leaving on would be i was using truly ocean sourced live rock that came with photosynthetic creatures as hitch hikers.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

Going against the grain so far, I have always cycled with lights on (but on a shortened photoperiod & lower intensity).

 

[HKAVR45]

I started my tank with dry pukani back in late December. Before saltwater hit the tank, the pukani was bleached, soaked with prime and then lanthanum chloride over the course of 5 months. I cycled the tank without lights and had zero algae. I should mention that I used Dr. Tim's, Fritz turbo start as well as other bacteria in a bottle. Cycle completed in about 5 weeks. At this point I turned on the skimmer, lights and refugium light. Intensity was low as I began moving starter corals into the tank. About two weeks ago I moved LPS to the tank and increased the intensity of the lights. This is when I started getting diatoms and some stringy brown algae on the glass and overflow. I'm currently getting a few green strands of algae here and there, but nothing unmanageable. A turkey baster blast to the rocks works well at keeping them relatively clean. I am using a small amount of GFO, rox carbon and my chaeto is growing rapidly. Nitrate 5 Phosphate .1

 

[Coastie Reefer]

If you check out the BRS/WWC build... they are running lights on. But they are also doing a 4 month cycle... they want all the uglies upfront so they don't have to worry about fighting it down the road.

It's a cool series, worth a look...

 

[madreefer11]

They are running with lights off until after 3 months