Tank has cycled now what?

[ibrat82]

So my tank has finally cycled however I haven't added any fish or cuc and won't have time until another week from today. Soooo

Do I run my lights now? Or wait till I have fish. If so do until them full schedule 10 hours a day?

Do I need to (feed? the bacteria in my tank until I put fish in?

What type of cuc should I get if I don't have algae?

I'm into week 4 and have no diatoms or algae growth. Have had my lights off during cycle and ran a gfo reactor as I didn't want the new tank algae problems.

 

[Flippers4pups]

I would run my lights if you have live rock. Keep the cuc lite for now, one snail per ten gallons. Continue ghost feeding to keep the nitifying bacteria feed, till you add some fish. There is plenty of info on transitioning from cycling to stocking on here and the web. Go slow and good luck.

 

[jminick2]

definitely do not NEED to feed bacteria once they have become established. Studies show they can live up to a year with no source of ammonia. By feeding you are introducing phosphates and more nitrates.. However if you do not mind monitoring those levels and doing WC as needed I feel it is a good habit to get into. If you do so I would recommend only doing it once or twice a week and make it small pinch. Your Cuc needs to be smaller since you do not want anything to starve. You can run your lights if you want that's not going to hurt anything except make algae grow which wouldn't be too bad if you are buying a CuC. There is no point in running the full 10 hours at this point but like I said it doesn't really matter. You CuC also depends on your future fish purchases... for example if you want shrimp certain thing will eat him later on...

 

[mitchb]

I would add some fish food or raw shrimp to the tank to keep the bacteria growing. The cuc won't have anything to eat so I wouldn't add one yet. A week won't make a difference whether your lights are on or not. You can spend time building your reef and getting the alk and calcium levels right. Add some fish. When algae starts to grow add snails and hermits. As I am sure you've read, go slow.