Hey everyone,
Should I turn my lights on while my tank is cycleing? If so, for how long? I would like to not have any algae blooms. The tank has been cycling for three days now. Its doing great. All of my water parameters are doing fine. I test ever other day. Right now my Nitrates are testing really high. Are there any benefits to turning on my lights right now?

Thanks!

if you dont want any algal blooms here is the trick to prevent them totally...
unplug everything and drain the tank completely... :)
you are going to get blooms, its part of the natural process.. :)

i would only leave the lights on for a couple hours as needed.
if you arent even going to be around the tank, then dont worry about it.

some people leave there tanks dark, others let them be lit. i cant say that one way is better than the other. but it does seem to be agreed on that a reduced photo period can reduce the intensity of algal blooms

I went with a 5 hour photo period during cycling simply to give my coraline a bit of a boost, and just in case some corals made it thru shipping and all that. Had a fair bit of a bloom towards the end but that was right before I added my clean up crew who are still happily munching! :)

I prefer to cycle with the lights on to allow the tank to adjust to the lighting period. For the nano, I didn't have the lights until the cycle was pretty much done, and once I put those lights on, it was time for hair algae. I say go ahead and run the lights since it's bound to happen and easier to try and get a grip on it now, than deal with it later when you have it growing over your corals.

Eventually you have to run the full light cycle, so why wait? That's just how I look at it. The way you choose is really no big deal in the long run.

I cycled with lights on for my tank, but that was mainly because I couldn't wait to see somthing move inside!

Thanks everyone! I have decided to cycle with the ligths on. I think I am in wildones boat! :) LOL. Gwen, that makes a lot of sense about what you said. I think taht I am going to work my tank into its lighting cycle. I am going to run my pcs for a while and then maybe in a week or so turn on the metal halides.

Thanks all, you're the best.