Lights and Refugium during cycle?

[DarkHorseMBA]

Hi,
My 75g tank is setup and I'm testing the water every 2 days, looking for the cycle to begin. I had some questions about lights and Refugium setup.

I have some CF lights on the system, just for the cycle, how long should the lights stay on? I have them running about 18 hr a day.

As for my Refugium I have about 5-6" of sand and some dry rock rubble I there now. I plan to add some plants or Cheato later. Should I have lights on the Refugium durning cycle too, if so what kind and how long?

DarkHorse


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[Mr Cob]

run the lights as if you had fish and coral in there. You should be working on stabilizing the system before the fish and coral are added and light plays an important part in that equation.

[SABOB]

Agree with Mr Cob, need to shorten light time on Display tank.....18 hrs a day seems too long

[FireWater]

Also, were you able to "seed" the refugium with any established sand or plant material from another tank?
It can help the diversity of the system in whole. May even help the cycle along.

[Mr Cob]

Yeah...now would be the time to seed if you haven't already.

I can seed sand and chaetomorpha. It would benefit you to seed from several of us.

[DarkHorseMBA]

Here's what I've done so far, and what the plan is tonight.
When I built the tank 40 of the 80lbs of sand was "Live" aragonite sand. I know that the life in these bags is questionable, but I needed some fine sand to mix with my reef sand and the LFS had live sand at the same price as dry $20/20lbs. I put a layer of live sand over the dry sand, the guy at the LFS said if I just mixed it up I'd smother the live bacteria. (the "smothering" seemed questionable too), but I went ahead. Also I've put in 2 teaspoons of fish flakes, one per day, into the tank. Tonight I plan on putting a dead shrimp from HEB, head and all, into the tank.

In light of all this should I still seed the sand, and put in Cheato before the cycle?
If you all think it's good I can post in the wanted section.

DarkHorse

[FireWater]

It sounds like you have a plan in place. I would not worry about adding anything else, just let the cycle start and continue.

[CoryDude]

Maybe I'm just dumb, but why do you need to run your lights for your display if you're trying to establish the nitrogen cycle? Sorry, not trying to be a thorn, I was just under the impression that photosynthetic activity was not needed to do this. Is this needed to help speed the die off with the rock? Just asking because I'm getting ready to go through the same thing and I hadn't planned on running lights until a few weeks later.

[Mr Cob]

I personally run the lights during cycle time to start stabilizing my tank...lights effect many things including PH and obviously temps. This is the best time to start getting familiar with how your tank will operate and fluctuate...no better time then when nothing can be harmed by your mistakes and lack of stability with the parameters.

But...onto if lights are really needed for a cycle. I'm guessing "no"...but "yes"...?

Cory...Interesting that you said lights aren't needed to cycle the tank because I think you are right and I'm actually going through that right now. I'm pretty low level when it comes to the scientific processes of our hobby so forgive me if I sound dumb as well...lol but I've been cycling my 85g without lights for about a week or two now (not by choice but because I do not have the canopy yet) and I have yet to see any cyano....so I'm thinking light is needed to finish my cycle....the tank may mature anyways though because I do have a refugium running with lights over macro and a DSB. I'm just curious what will happen and where the tank will be at when I do finally add the lights.

I would say that the tank will cycle and should cycle without light over the display, because beneficial bacteria does not need light to grow.