Lights during a cycle?

[AquaJunkie]

Ok so iv been cycling my 20g reef now for about 5-6 days with lights on it for 6 hours a day. But now im starting to see signs of algae im wondering if i can turn them off for the rest of the cycle? My main problem is i have about 18lbs of live rock in there and wondered if i turn the lights off would the live rock die too?

 

[ReeferBob]

Live rock is live because of bacteria living on it, which does not require light. You can turn your lights off with no ill affects. Did you use tap water? If so, I highly suggest dumping your tank, getting and RO/DI unit and starting over. It will be a never ending battle with algae if you are using tap water.

 

[ChristopherKriens]

Definitely keep lights off during the cycle as there are a lot of nutrients in the water at this time. Adding light creates the perfect environment for algae to flourish.

 

[sean151]

It's upto you if you want to keep lights on or off. If you have no life that requires light you can just keep it off and not mess with it until you want to start testing.

 

[AquaJunkie]

I tested my tap water and the nitrates are very low. Iv used tap water on my freshwater tanks and never had bad algae problems. The reason i have not bought an ro unit is because they are very expensive but if this tank runs into bad algae problems i may have to invest in one. Thanks for all your help

 

[ReeferBob]

Did you test for phosphates? Tap water is typically full of those too.