cycling

[ping29]

so i have bought 13 pounds of indo rock and 17 pounds of malaysain and 70of fiji rock salinaty is 1.024 and temp is 79.9 the rock has all sorts of life on them and seen a crab in there too, through the cycle period is all this going to dye of and come back . also was told to leave lights of for 3 weeks then test water. should i be adding anything to the water?

 

[trido]

That sounds like a pretty generic way of cycling your tank to me. If you have uncured rock and want to save the critters you should keep an eye on your ammonia from the start. If it starts to skyrocket you can do a water change to get it back down, but some will say that this will prolong the cycling process. Take a close look at your rock when the cloud settles and see if there are any corals that you will definately want to save. These should obviously be turn to the light and this will determine whether otr not you will want to use your lights at all. Most try to keep any lighting to a minimum during the cylce to keep algea build up from getting too bad. A few hours a day wont kill anything. Also, you shouldnt add need to add any supplements to you water until you start keeping corals.

 

[ping29]

great thanks for the info one more ? would you turn one skimmer or leave it off for the time being. and after its done its cycleing if i add substrate well it start over always looking for and appreciate feedback

 

[trido]

If you add substrate a litlle at a time at a later date it shouldnt cause you any problems other than clouding.