Hey y’all. About to start the Red Sea mature reef start kit to cycle my tank. It says to use the skimmer so i have it on and will try and dial it in over the next week. Should I turn off the reef mat?
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Hey y’all. About to start the Red Sea mature reef start kit to cycle my tank. It says to use the skimmer so i have it on and will try and dial it in over the next week. Should I turn off the reef mat?
Super helpful. I’ll probably do the same with the skimmer. I wasn’t planning on having the lights on until after the cycle until I read the instructions. Do you think if I did have them on it would cause algae? So you’re saying no reefmat until day 10?Opinions vary widely. I just cycled both of my tanks with RS reef mature last quarter.
I personally turned the skimmer on from the get go but just opened the drain to let it all flow back into the sump. I believe RS wants the skimmer running primarily due to the use of NoPox which for the most part I did not use as I started with dry rock and no lights. I still ran the skimmer as it needs to develop a biofilm to work right. If you have some live rock and running the lights from the start then you may want the NoPox. In the end I used a small amount but not much.
ReefMat. I did not install any media until about day 10-14 when the cycle was close to done or should I say just before starting to add critters
If Dry rock, lights on during cycle doesn’t make a lot of sense IMO. As Gbroadbridge said ReefMature was designed with live rock in mind,so adjustments may be needed. Even with live rock, I probably would not start lights on personally but I probably would turn them on a bit sooner than I did. Even when I did turn the lights on they were on low and heavier on the blues to reduce algae. Lights out, I had a tiny bit of hair algae on about day four. If lights on I imagine I would have had a lot more which is where the NoPox comes in as algae management, which again for the most part I did not use.Super helpful. I’ll probably do the same with the skimmer. I wasn’t planning on having the lights on until after the cycle until I read the instructions. Do you think if I did have them on it would cause algae? So you’re saying no reefmat until day 10?