Skimmer on or off during cycling?

[lbear]

Hi!

In order to kick off cycling process, I threw two pieces of raw shrimp to my 90 gal tank about a week ago. After that my skimmer starts to create lots of waste. The ammonia level in the tank is always about 0.5 mg/L. same as nitrite, always around 1 mg/L. However, nitrate keeps rising. The shrimp is half decomposed.

I guess those decomposed protein got skimmed out. Should I turn off my skimmer? If so, will the ammonia level get higher? What's the peak ammonia level you expect during cycle?

[Shoestring Reefer]

Your tank is cycling fine. The rise in nitrate shows that.

[reefnetworth]

i prefer to cycle without skimming to keep as much bacteria as possible to cycle sooner. your ammonia needs to max out (50-70ppm high range) along with nitrites (0.2-0.5ppm) then 50-75% water change. then skim some nasty stuff. (its gonna smell worse than it is/should now) REEF-ON!!!