you dont switch to 12/12 untill you want the plant to flower,unless its autoflowering then it doesnt matter.
so give your seedlings 24 hours of light untill they have a good enough root system(7-10 days should be long enough) then you can change to a 18/6 light schedule.
some people give thier plants 24 hours of light throughout the whole vegging stage,but i think the dark period is also important,so i don't.