Light schedule while cycling?

[Tiburon57]

I have a 30 gallon tank with 35 pounds of LR, 40 of LS and I'm running Coralife Lunar Aqualight HO T5 Aquarium Light Fixture
Included 10,000K and Actinic T-5 lamps and Directional Lunar Blue LEDs. What schedule should I keep? i

[NHATRANG]

no need for light

[joshyross70]

im cycling aswell and you should not have any light while tank is cycling

[brackish10]

i was told to dolike 6hrs of light during cycling for the live rock.

[thegrun]

If you have corals on the rocks then I would run the lights, otherwise save the electricity.

[Terefel]

Does the no lights while cycling rule apply to a fuge too? Is there any benefit of adding macro and light early or does it make more sense to wait until the ammonia has come down and nitrites are dropping?

[maddmaxx]

Originally Posted by Terefel

Does the no lights while cycling rule apply to a fuge too? Is there any benefit of adding macro and light early or does it make more sense to wait until the ammonia has come down and nitrites are dropping?

no the light on the fuge would be a good idea if you have macro in there so help eat the phos up. especially if your running the lights on the main tank also...but if the main tank is empty. keep the lights off...

[KeepNitReel]

Originally Posted by joshyross70

im cycling aswell and you should not have any light while tank is cycling

Why?
Would be nice to know what the running temp of the tank will be before adding livestock

[kurt_n]

Originally Posted by KeepNitReel

Why?
Would be nice to know what the running temp of the tank will be before adding livestock

You can do that after the tank has cycled.

Personally... I'd cycle without lights to limit algae growth. While cycling, the abundance of nutrients (nitrates) will really enable your algae to go nuts - assuming it has light.

After you've cycled, and done your big massive water change to get your nitrates to near zero, you can turn on your lights and figure out the temperature your tank wants to be at. You can then adjust your heaters accordingly. Give the tank a week after it's done cycling before adding livestock (the livestock that's in your quarantine tank, right?... hint, hint) and it will be just fine. If you're worried about the bacteria you've built up, you can feed the empty tank a pinch of flake food every couple days to make sure the bacteria has some ammonia to process.

[Terefel]

Originally Posted by maddmaxx

no the light on the fuge would be a good idea if you have macro in there so help eat the phos up. especially if your running the lights on the main tank also...but if the main tank is empty. keep the lights off...

Thanks! This is great info to know. Appreciate the response.

[KeepNitReel]

Originally Posted by kurt_n

You can do that after the tank has cycled.

Personally... I'd cycle without lights to limit algae growth. While cycling, the abundance of nutrients (nitrates) will really enable your algae to go nuts - assuming it has light.

After you've cycled, and done your big massive water change to get your nitrates to near zero, you can turn on your lights and figure out the temperature your tank wants to be at. You can then adjust your heaters accordingly. Give the tank a week after it's done cycling before adding livestock (the livestock that's in your quarantine tank, right?... hint, hint) and it will be just fine. If you're worried about the bacteria you've built up, you can feed the empty tank a pinch of flake food every couple days to make sure the bacteria has some ammonia to process.

To each is own bro, personally I solve that issue during the cycle. I also dose pure ammonia to ghost feed an empty tank, flake food puts more than ammonia in the tank. As for QT, everyone should have one. I keep a fully cycled 10g in my kitchen.