Use Filtering When Cycling New Tank?

[tHeHEYzeus]

Hey everyone, I'm just setting up my first marine aquarium and I was wondering if when I cycle it for in the beggining I should have any of my filtration equipment set up (consist of protein skimmer, sock filter, carbon pads).

I posted this in the reef section of the forum and am not getting any good info.

Thanks,

[Riptide]

I'm probably one of the less experinced people on this site...but when I was starting out I was told (just cycling LR) to only run a pump and make sure there was agitation of the surface water. It has seemed to work for me however others may have a different point of view...

I also did about a 10% water change every 5 days or so because the live rock I was starting out with had a sponge, a bunch of mushrooms , sea squirts and some huge purple growth that resembles coralline algae (don't know what it is) and I really wanted to keep them. The sponge went south but everything else seems to be flourishing....