cycling your tank- which method did you use

My LFS is trying to sell me insta-cycle in a bottle, I told him I would pass and wait it out, hell im waiting this long to even get anything started.

 

I always cycle with one yellow tailed blue damsel.

 

I chose (And am using now) live rock, live sand, and two damsels and a ball of chaeto macro-algae. My ammonia has never been higher than .25, and within a day is down to .1 or zero. Nitrite has been non existent.

I would guess if everything stays the same, I'll be done in about two weeks (3 week cycle).

 

Other - i took the filter material from my previous tank!

 

We cycled with LR, LS, water straight from the LFS's 500 gallon system (he let us borrow a 50 gallon container and did a little "water change" for us), and a piece of raw shrimp. My biggest fear with using the "damsel method" is we would end up with a fish we never really wanted in the first place! With a smaller tank, we didn't have much room to spare for unwanted fish!

 

i am using, the LR, LS and piece of raw shrimp method, and my tank is still currently cycling. I also did not want to use a damsel for the exact reason that triplemom had mentioned

 

Other - tank was a 75g, used all LR(80lbs) and LS(40 lbs) - tank cycled in about 3 weeks. Upgraded all to the 150, added base rock and dry sand - saw a mini cycle that lasted about 3 days.

 

Die off from live rock,sand for one, to keep from torturing a fish and two, like TM said,to keep from ending up with a fish I didn't want and having to go through the trouble of digging him out. I had no idea what fish I wanted at the time.

 

What do you mean by the term "cycle"?



I used LR back in the day.

And I'm sorry, normally I wouldn't point out spelling errors (I know it's bad etiquette) , but it's a POLL and not a POLE. LOL!!!

 

since i was a wide eyed newb when starting my tank back in nov. i just went with the time cycle. lol. lr and ls. added some fish flake food and waited and waited. after 6 weeks and checking params , which they ran through the gamut of , i added my cuc at about 8 weeks. then 2 clowns about 2 weeks after that. all has gone good.