New skimmer

Hey question im about to fill my tank up with water tomorrow, its got sand/rock/puttign 25lbs of live rock tomorrow to begin the cycle. It has under sump/fuge to go along with it. Curious should I put my skimmer in it and start it up while its cycling or let it complete the cycle for the 2 months then put the skimmer in.

 

i go ahead and start the skimmer when i setup the tank, because it helps gas exchange and stablizes ph. some people say it slow the cycle down because it remove nutrients that the bacteria feed on, but if you go slow with your stocking nothing bad will happen.

 

werd ill go ahead and place it in. thx

 

I would wait on the skimmer. Two different camps on this one. You decide.

It will ultimately take waste out of the system. Waste that feeds the bacteria you want to grow. And while waste is generally considered a bad thing left unchecked in an aquarium, the exception to the rule (to an extent) is during the cycling phase.

Will it prolong the cycle? Yes, it will. Significantly? Like months? No. More on the order of a few weeks.

Will choosing one method over the other affect my tank six months from now. No. It won't. We are talking procedure here. Now, running actinics only during the cycle, that is something I would do for sure. No daylights until it is cycled. Algae thang.

 

On my new system I'm planning on sitting on the fence. I'm going to not run the skimmer for the first couple weeks and turn it on to help get things stabilized, break in the skimmer, get it all dialed in etc before putting livestock in.

 

if it were me I would run the skimmer during cycle. you don't want the doc's continuously building up in your system because cycle or not, the disolved compounds will over run the system and build up in your sand bed causing a short sandbed life. Do what you want but I have set up a ton of tanks in my life and this is the way I have always done it with success.