Preparing to Cycle my new 120 and have questions???

I will be cycling my tank in the next few weeks ,hopefully and my question"s are

1. do I run my protein skimmer the entire time

2. do I set my lights on a regular cycle

3. I will have a fuge, so do I intorduce the chaeto during cycle

4. I have some cured rock and live sand that I will like to use in my fuge, can I just use this in the fuge to help the cycling or do i have to place it in the main tank?

5. do i still do bi-weekly water changes during cycling?

6. do i use carbon to eliminate odor during this time

I'm sure I probably left out a few things so I appreciate the advice and any other information I will need.

thanks.

 

1. Do not run a skimmer during the cycle
2. yes, regular schedule for the lights
3. Do not set up the refugium yet, there is nothing to sustain life
4. I would put it in the main tank and hold off on the refugium until after the cycle
5. I wouldn't do any water changes during a cycle unless you run into a stuck cycle. There are different opinions here - no changes is mine...but opinions vary
6. You can use carbon, but you should not have a smell if you do this correctly. There was a thread yesterday or the day before about a stinky cycle -- read that thread. The person used to much raw shrimp to cycle with.

 

Crimson pretty much covered it all.
I wouldnt do a water change until after the cycle, nor would I run carbon during it. Just my .02

 

I thought you don't need the lights for the cycle, everyone I heard from said its just a waste of electricity. Bacteria doesn't need light to survive.

 

He said he has cured live rock and live sand -- any life that will survive the cycle would require light

Edit...I just googled, it looks like the world is split on this one too.

But if our end result are Nitrobacters - these are living organisms which would require light. So in the least you would need to know the precise time in which they are formed and switch the lights on...probably safest to just run the lights regardless of what you have in your tank during the cycle.

 

Just to play devils advocate and hoping for someone to clarify haha, Would it make a difference if its cured on not? Ur assuming that liverock needs bacteria to survive, then how could baserock ever become liverock if there was no lighting. No hard feelings just like to start a debate. Also I cycled a 24, and a 10 without lights, and I plan on doing it with my 56 as well.......

 

I love debates as much as the next guy ;-)

In my opinion cured or not cured there are some tough things in the world and I doubt 100% die off would be obtained. Thus, lighting would help keep the percentage of life higher.

I am sure you can go lights or no lights and have it work. But read my edit to my last post. Your beneficial bacteria does in fact require lighting, google nitrobacters and read up.

 

Just a thought on the fuge,not from exsperience as I don't have one,it might be good to set it up with sand and or rock during the cycle so the bacteria can begin to populate that area but hold off adding any macro algae until nitrates have risen.

 

Thanks for the help, can't wait to get home to get my tank up and begin to cycle.

 

That's true I would not run lights during the cycle, it's a good way to get algae.

Also Actinic wavelengths of light can weaken nitrifying bacteria in the water column before it has a chance to find a suitable substrate to attach too.