Should I start carbon/gfo during my cycle

[m0nkie]

So my tank's been officially cycling. The water inside has been running for 2 weeks now. This week, I used Dr. Tim's fishless cycle to avoid smelling raw shrimp in my bedroom. dosed some ammonia per instruction.

Ammonia is currently <0.25
Nitrite just spiked at 4ppm.

However, my tank is starting to look green. I haven't confirmed with the white bucket water test, but the water definitely looks greener. I'm running 2 WP40 for water circulation. On top of that, the BRS dry rocks are giving me 0.17 Phosphate reading by Hannah Checker.

Reef Octopus XS200 skimmer is on stand by. Haven't started it yet.

Should I start up my two media reactors now? GFO and Carbon. or should I wait until cycle completes and algae blooms? I'm not in a hurry for fish. They will require at least a month of quarantine. But I would like to add some CUC and shrimps soon after cycle.

[Sugar Magnolia]

No need to waste the media during the cycle. The skimmer however, should be running.

[Hudds]

Although algae blooms are part of the cycling process I would add gfo for the leached phosphates of the dry rock.

[Fishmommy]

I used GFO but not carbon during my cycle and it really kept the algae at bay.

[m0nkie]

thanks! I will start with 1/3 GFO and skimmer.