Cycling a tank with lights on?

[Zuma]

Curious what folks opinions are on having your lights run on some sort of schedule during your tank's cycle?

"Back in the day"I was always under the impression that lights should remain off during cycling for two reasons 1) light would inhibit the formation of nitrosomonas bacteria and 2) light during the cycle process can stimulate unwanted algae growth since the tank has yet to stabilize.

However, seems like some folks now are leaving their lights on during cycling in order to keep photosynthetic flora/fauna that are on live rock alive. I just started cycling a tank with 20lbs of KPA live rock and am thinking the lights should be on for at least a short duration to keep the desired macro algae, etc. alive.

 

[Waters]

I always cycled with them on.....the algae phase is going to come eventually whether or not you cycle with them on or off. I liked to be able to watch the live rock grow since there is nothing else you can have in the tank at that time.

 

[Zuma]

That's kind of what I'm thinking, would rather not loose all the cool macro algae due to 2-3 weeks of no light.

 

[Jesterrace]

I didn't due to not wanting premature hair algae growth.

 

[User1]

I've heard, and also recently cycled my tank, without lights. The reason is the bacteria you want doesn't need the light anyway so we are just wasting energy, wear, and tear. Made sense to me so that is what I did. I also did this 15 or so years ago with another cycle I did. I really don't see any reason to have them on.