Newbie aquarium question

TheRock wrote:

Isn't high ammonia part of the cycle ?

Yes. Full cycle with a deep sand bed would be:
ammonia-nitrite-nitrate-nitrite-nitrous oxide-nitrogen

Don't you need it to cycle ? If you dilute the tank with water aren't you
just
removing bacteria that moves the cycle along and prolonging cycle time ?

depends.If the ammonia spike TOO high, bacteria will die.

When I started up my first tank (which wasn't that long ago) my ammonia
never got above 0.3 mg/ml. But I "cheated" - tank was initially filled
with "live" water, "live" sand, and I added a cup of crap out of one of
the LFS sumps to innoculate things (I use quotes around "live" water and
sand, since I question how live it can be after sitting in a sealed
containber for months. it WILL have active bacrteria spores in it, tho,
which DOES help)

I only ask because I didn't do it that way and I had plenty of pods and
worms
after the cycle.

Pods and worms are pretty hardy. Pods can take a LOT of abuse, from what
I have heard. (I had a pod "cultures" going for a while - water would
get just plain NASTY, with ammonia readings of like .6 or .8 range, and
pods were just fine with it) I think you would have had plenty of both
(pods and worms) no matter which way you went.