With compact fluoroescents, how much time should I leave the lights on while cycling? I've just started a 55g saltwater setup with live sand, so 8 hours on? 9, 10?
You dont say if you have live rock or not, if so I would not leave the lights on for long or at all until you cycle to zero ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, or you will just be growing a lot of algae.
I have live sand, and I'll be putting in "dead" rocks very soon. They are currently being cleaned and disenfected. The rocks came from a previous owner of a saltwater tank that became infested with bristleworms. Should I be looking into getting some live rocks or just let the live sand cycle into these dead rocks?
Some folks use dead rock as base rock for live rock as a less cost alternative in rocking large tanks. The dead rock does not have any coralline, macro algae, or much of anything else but nitifying bacteria and possibly micro fauna on it. Its your choice if you want live rock addition or not. I would put the rock in and test for nitrite and nitrate a week or so later and if 0 put the lights on a regular schedule.
im almost out of my cyclying stage. i had to cut my lights back to a couple hours a day because i was getting the brown algae. get a clean up crew going (esp. hermits) so they can keep the bottom clean. after 1 month or so you will want to do a 10% water change to bring your nitrates down.
