Cycling an Aquarium

To start off, i'm not exactly positive on how to cycle an aquarium. I think I have a few little details missing. In my opinion, I thought I just cycle a tank with a bacterial additive like Stress Zyme. But then, after doing further research, I heard that you should also cycle the tank with a fish along with the bacteria. Is this nessessary? Do I have to have a fish to complete my cycle or will bacteria be just fine for a few weeks?

 

add a raw shrimp in a piece of pantyhose! or add ammonia! or pee in it!;0

 

Raw shrimp, throw it in, and wait... simple. dont over complicate yourself.

 

+1

Get 3 raw shrimp from the grocery store, put them in the tank and wait. you will see spikes in your water parameters, then they should drop to 0. Once that happens then add 1 or 2 fish. Take it slow, let it grow!

I assume you have live rock, live sand or both, correct?

 

That is correct, except that the live rock isn't really live. It's from Bulk Reef Supply.

 

It's live now!

 

Everyone has their preferred way of cycling. IMO you should cycle a tank by pretending you already have the max number of fish you want to keep and feed everyday just like you would if you already had them. This way the nutrients you are adding matches the bioload you will eventually have causing the bacteria to reproduce to match the eventual bioload.

Once the tank has cycled add one fish at a time and monitor the parameters but keep feeding the same amount. This keeps the bacteria built up for your eventual bioload.