10 gallon cycle - questions

[Louis]

Hey everyone, I have a few questions about my setup.

 

I have a 10 gallon tank with 10lbs of uncured live rock and 15lbs of aragonite sand. I'm using a penguin mini with bio-wheel. I also have the 20" aqualight (96 watt powerquad), it stays on about 12 hours / day. The tank has been cycling for 2 weeks.

 

I've read a few posts that said a bio-wheel should not be used, what are your opinions on this? Should I take it out?

 

I also read that I should leave the lights off while the tank is cycling. Is this necessary?

 

The live rock has a small mushroom/button looking animal on it that extends at night (so that you can see its stalk) and retracts during the day. I dont know if this animal needs light or not but I dont want to kill it by turning the light off.

 

I just noticed that some pieces of live rock and the sand are starting to turn brown and looks like brown algae, is this a normal part of the cycle?

 

Thanks for all the help.

[tinyreef]

the brown is probably diatoms which are a normal stage.

 

the mushroom-thingy sounds nocturnal so the photoperiod/light shouldn't affect it unless you go 24/7 with lights. it's pers prefs on the lighting during cycle imo. some peeps keep it off to control the algae growth and let the bene bacteria process everything versus letting the algae get a crack at it. i find no-light cycles to be longer and with less bio-diversity but to each their own.

 

if you've got really uncured rock :x i'd keep the bio-wheel for a couple weeks and then go commando. otherwise you could go without right away.