Lights on or off?

[bigfishy]

I have just began the cycle in my tank and have a few damsels in there do you guys reccommend leaving the lights on all the time? They are just the regular floresent light that came with the tank. For those of you that I talked with earlier all the damsels did not end up dying, I kinda off gave them a shock which was my mistake buy just tossing them in the water. In any case all the fish seem fine now, I have decided to wait a while before I do any live rock I will get a pic up asap of the tank. Thanks to everyone for the help!

 

[thomas712]

When cycling a tank I prefer lights off, no livestock. If you want to watch your fish only have your lights on for a couple of hours a day. You could if you want to leave them on 10 hours a day but that will only help the algea during its phase of the cycle.
Thomas

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

I disagree - Lights on, you just bought a couple of really troublesome fish and you might as well watch them while they struggle through the cycle process.
I will never cycle my tank with live animals again - too stressful for them (besides damsels are hard to catch and horribly mean little

[hr]
when they grow up.)
Cycling uncured Live Rock is the only time I suggest lights off (this helps the die off process). the lights are needed for photosynthesis.

 

[luvnluk]

Do a search - there was a big debate on this subject - the thread started as "Update on the new tank - Pictures". I found some very useful information!