Light on Light off

If it is fully cured live rock... not really going to be much of a cycle right, nothing to die off?

 

I took a hybrid approach....put the rock in and left my lights on for 2-3 days (on the normal cycle - so not on all the time). Mainly did this because I wanted to get a good look at the rock, make sure I liked where I had it, etc. Once the Ammonia started to spike, I shut the lights down for about 5 days....then turned them back on as the Nitrite went down...got a little bit of hair algae as a result, but tossed a few turbo grazers in there and they cleaned it right up. As a result, my rock looks great, water parameters are in check, and no algae to speak of. I have done it this way twice now, and been happy with the outcome both times.