How long should my light cycle be for the first 30 days? Up to this point I’ve just been wasting seeds trying to have a successful grow.

Read Mr Grow it’s start here section. use His technique and trial and error. It’s all explained there. I use it. His newest book is killer.

Should run 18/6 until your ready to flower(presuming you're growing photoperiods). Days are a general guideline, when you feel you have the plant the way you want it go ahead and switch light cycles for flower. If your growing auto flowers no light change necessary.

18/6 for Veg and then keep it on that for the entire lifecycle if growing an autoflower plant. If you're growing a photoperiod plant, 18/6 for veg and then change to 12/12 when you want to flower.