lights on or off during cycle

[cwalters]

LFS says not to turn on the lights during cycling. I only have 9lbs of LR but plan on getting more. Tank is about 2 weeks old it is a 75, with an aquaclear proline wet/dry (150) w/skimmer. Also is it ok to put in the cleaning crew? (blue leg hermits and so forth) LFS says to only put in damsels until cycle is complete. just want to know if I should turn on the lights or leave them off, then if it is ok to put in some blue legs?

 

[birdy]

Leaving the lights off will reduce the amount of nuisance algae that will grow (normal part of a new tank). You do not want to add any invertebrates until your cycle is completely finished, that means Ammonia and Nittrites are 0 and Nitrates are low (under 20).

 

[alti]

just throw in a couple shrimp from the grocery store to cycle the tank. you dont have to use the damsels. they tell u to use damsels so they can sell you something. shrimp will work just as good and you dont have to woryy about killing the damsels or trying to get them out later if they survuve.

 

[heyoo]

Hopefully you plan on adding more live rock ASAP. Sure, with the decaying shrimp method mentioned above - and with the small bioload from your rock - you will cycle the tank... it might take a while, but it will cycle. But if you wait two months, and then dump in 50 lb of fresh liverock, you'll start the cycle all over again.

 

[jf228]

lets say you have a 30g tank and you have about 10 lb. of live rock and you did your whole cycle with that. What would happen if you keep on adding live rock over and over again little by little to about 25 lb.?