Cycle tank with lights or w/o?

[Reef man 89]

Hello everyone, I am setting up my first saltwater tank. I just bought everything I need to get it up and running. So I have been doing a lot of research on how to cycle a tank. So after my nitrites turn to nitrates then do I do a water change? Also I have read allot of mixed reviews on if the light should be on or off. Want to know what you guys did, did you leave them off the whole time? Or were they on a short or long light cycle? Should I run a skimmer during the cycle? Thank you for All the help I am trying to make sure I do everything the right way.

 

[Romeo007]

I would give little light and run skimmer for sometime initial days. But it's not mandatory. It's all about you to monitor cycle start and end.expect diatom bloom and it's normal for new tank when you go with lights

 

[Diesel]

I have always cycled without the skimmer as you want as much as possible bacteria stay in the tank to complete cycle.
Oh hey wait............. does a skimmer remove bacteria as well............ yes it does.
A other option is if this is a new skimmer an needs to broken in which can take sometimes a week up to 3 weeks or longer to have it open and don't collect any of the stuff in the cup.
That way you break you skimmer in and keep all the beneficial elements in your water in order to cycle.
As far as lights, the reason ppl keep them off is to reduce the amount of diatom algae that will grow during the cycle process.

 

[Bpb]

Yep lights off less algae....but...since it's a new tank, you WILL be going through some algae blooms. They're unavoidable and some would say necessary to reach good maturation. So...lights off, less algae to look at during cycling, but it's kind of just prolonging the inevitable. Diatoms show up to consume the small amount of silica that is introduced from fresh glass, silicone seals, rocks, and sand. While ugly for a couple weeks, they're actually doing you some good. During the early phases of your tank I'd strongly consider setting up an algae turf scrubber in your sump to encourage that algae bloom to take place in a hidden environment, rather than on your rocks. Will help with aesthetics. But don't freak out if during your first 6-8 months or so you see some uglies growing like green hair, dinoflagellate brown slime, Cyanobacteria (purple slime), or red turf algae. It just happens in the early phases. Sometimes worse than others. Pincushion and tuxedo urchins as well as the larger turbo snails are phenomenal at bowing down that type of stuff.

 

[Bpb]

And yes...water changes are a good habit to get into. Rodi water and quality salt. You may do more of them at first early on. You can run some purigen as well to help limit the load of organics that will build up quickly. New tanks aren't as efficient at processing waste. As it ages you'll get so much micro algae, mobile and sessile invertebrate, and sponge growth that your tank will much easier consume the nitrate and phosphate introduced by fish waste

 

[Mark75]

I prefer to blast the tank with light right from the start!

I want to find out what kind of algae problems I am going to be dealing with before I stock the tank. The tank is going to go through the "uglies" anyway might as well speed the process up with plenty of light.