Lights on or off during cycle????

Im cycling my 55 gal.....I have 2 blue antic 96w PC Fl and 1 150w 10k MH. Is it better to have the lights on or off. I have read to leave em off to prevent algae. If I leave em on, how long?...12 on and 12 off etc??? PC and and the MH at the same time?....PC at night?? etc, etc....

 

got fish?

 

I've read that live rock, sand and etc. don't need light to survive, so you can keep the lights off. Also, having the lights on a lot will encourage algae blooms.

However, I left my lights on all the time while my tank was cycling because I wanted to watch the rock (lol) and it didn't cause anything detrimental, but the lighting is not necessary.

 

no fish....cycling with a raw shrimp

 

Definitely better to leave them off as it will in fact help to reduce the nuisance algae growth. With a new tank, you are not going to have any life forms that will require light for its survival, like symbiotic corals for the most part.

 

you and your raw shrimp i may be dumb but leave the lights off and stop with the shrimp cycle starter use starter optimizer wait 1 to 2 months depending on the alge growth if you cant wait, get shrimp starfish snails and other clames scallops or cleaners wait for the big alge bloom becase oh yeah it happens i had to wait 5 months after a stable tank is secured then happy trails manage temp sal alk amm pho ni o2 o3 and a few more u need to learn good luck and happy salints

 

I left the lights on a 10 hour cycle. This is because I started with tap water, so I wanted to encourage the nasty algae bloom to eat up the silicates in the water... It was going to happen eventually, so I wanted it to happen before I had any real livestock.

 

kcbrad had it right with her response. Lights on during a cycle don't really accomplish anything. Leaving them off saves you money on electricity. As mentioned, nuisance algae has one less food source during this period when a lot of organisms are competing for turf. I remember reading a while back too, that during cycling you are attempting to create a biological (filtration) environment rather than a photosynthetic one. Lights will feed algae, and algae covering your LR will discourage bacteria from growing there. More bacteria now could mean less algae later. If you can establish bacteria rather than algae during this time, you'll be better off in the long run.

One vote here for leaving them off.

 

ahh ber durr sparky reef what i said but bluntly

 

Another vote to leave lights out,you can turn them on when you want to check things out but I would turn them off otherwise.MH=electricity=$$$.