i am cycling my tank at the moment and i have read a number of books and articles that have contradicted each other.

do i need to be running my skimmer during the cycle and if so should i be running it 24/7?

thanks a million for your help

Paul

I ran mine 24/7. I see it reccomended more often than not.

same here if your system is going to have a skimmer run it. treat your tank as if it had livestock in it. lights and everything.

thanks all, i will keep running the skimmer

i have to disagree with running a skimmer while cycling. think about what you're ultimately trying to accomplish by cycling your tank: establishing a biofiltration system, which means you're trying to colonize the tank with the various bacteria that feed on nitrogenous waste.

a skimmer removes certain types of nitrogenous waste from the system BEFORE the bacteria can feed on it, so you're effectively starving the bacteria you're attempting to grow, thereby increasing your cycle time.

i wouldn't run the skimmer until the tank settles down some...certainly not before it's good and cycled.

I'd say run it, for at least 3 reasons:

1. Skimmers can take a while to "break in", you might as well get it started now.
2. Skimming "wet" can cut down the time it takes for the milky sandstorm of a freshly added substrate to clear up.
3. If it's a new (to you) skimmer (or if this hobby in general is new to you) you should probably run the skimmer for the simple purpose of getting familiar with it and how it operates. At a minimum you'll want to (have to!) fiddle with it a bit to find out the best air/water ratio to use, the best height to position it at, how high you can crank it up before microbubbles become a problem, etc...

Plus since the inevitable "collection cup overflow" event WILL happen to everyone AT LEAST ONCE (even if yours has a drain, you are not excluded from Murphy's Law), it might as well happen when the bioload is minimal and the resulting skimmate is lighter and easier to clean up... :)

I started running mine right away. However there was so much sandstorm junk in the water that I was getting "mud" in the bottom of the skimmer and I turned it off for a week or 10 days until the sandstorm cleared.