Fishless cycling with ammonia is the way to go. I dont see in any way how fish can be harmed doing this as long as ur using ammonia pure that is mixed with various amounts of water, depending on the brand. The ammonia put in the tank is no longer ammonia when the cycle is finished, its nitrate. Fish poop turns into the same toxic ammoina ur putting in to the tank. Its the same stuff like...i dont kno how to explain it better then that.
after the cycle , You do a huge water change and the nitrates are preety much all gone. Then there u go, u got a tank and a filter full of good bacteria and your fish never come into contact with high amounts of ammonia or nitrite.
As long as u keep track of how much it takes to get to 5-7 ppm of ammonia, and keep dosing that each day until the nitrite shows, then cut that amount of ammonia in half for the rest of the cycle, it can be done no problem. The good thing about it too is, your in control of everything thats going on and u dont gotta worry about high amounts of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate in the tank. No need to change ne water til the end.
Inmy experience with fishless cyclying,on my 48 gal, i was able to fully sstock the tank with cichlids when it was finished. it worked perfect. I did that last summer and not a single fish has ever died in that tank( other then someconvict fry which were eaten, fufilling their purpose).
its justs like 7 enigma said,
to the lfs its new and they maybe even might notunderstand it . Its a new thing and its gona take a while for everyone to catch on.
and u kno the lfs is gona try to delay this obviosyly cause this new way is gona mean less money coming in off of thigns already mentioned like cycle, cultured gravel, etc, which will no longer have any purpose,altho i must say cycle already has no purpose other then getting $$.
bottomline, its easier on the wallet to fishless cycle and easier to do overall with less effort, mind u understand the nitrogen cycle and kno wut ur doing.
