i'd say Amy nailed it...
you can shorten the photoperiod if you want, but once you turn the lights on, even after keeping it dark, you'll have a diatom bloom.
you need to think of a new tank as a dizzy microcosm that needs to stabilize and "sit still". first, your water params will be all over the place (cycle), after that, the tank still needs to go thru various algae cycles as it matures, once those are over, the tank is FINALLY on its way to maturity, but to be honest, you're looking at 6 mos to a year for this maturation process to complete itself.
one thing you'll notice is with an immature system, you'll often have "mini cycles" (usually in the form of light/short diatom blooms) each time something changes, including adding new fish.
once a system is mature, you kinda have to work at destabilizing it, as they become pretty rock-solid if not overstocked and are well-maintained.
