On Jul 7, 12:37*pm, Andy wrote:
On Jul 5, 10:10*pm, Larry Blanchard wrote:

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:26:08 +0000, Andy Pastuszak wrote:
Put the plants in first and then add a little ammonia avery day for about
a week. *That way you don't need any "seed" fish. *Just change the water a
little more often for the first month (after that first week). *Look up
"fishless cycling" for more info.

I did it that way and never saw any ammonia or nitrites, the plants and
the bacteria combined did the trick.

This i have to try! *Off to do some searches.

You can toss in a tiny cocktail shrimp, or some fish food etc and let
it spoil for a few days to get the action going, and then remove the
cocktail shrimp so it does not become too putrid. Monitor water
parameters for rise and then fall of Ammonia and then the nitrate and
nitrite cycyles etc.......no live fish need be used, or perhaps the
best way is get some filter media from an established tank and use it.
Even if there is a chance of ICH or some other problem in the
established tank, as long as there is no fish to host inthe new setup
it willdie off rather quickly long before the tank is finished
cycling. So old filter media form an established tank works great as
does fish food or dead cocktailshrimp.