Ammonia vs Shrimp

[JMorris271]

i guys
I got my first shipment of Marco live rock (25 lbs) Friday. I put it in a 20 gal barrel,powerhead, along with 25 lbs of DR and covered it with RHODI and salt 1/2 cup per gal, .
I have read somewhere stated that ammonia is faster than shrimp but from what I have been reading on the board shrimp seems to be the preferred catalyst
Which should I use to get my cycle of to a start?
I can't put it into my tank yet because I am still working on the stand.
I would have liked to put his this question on my build thread but I need to know the answer now.

Thank all.

Jay

 

[carey]

I have actually never done the shrimp method, I use pure ammonia.

I have setup countless tanks over the last few years, I'd say at least 20, probably more lol and have always used the ammonia method because of its ease and in my opinion, quick cycling.
The ammonia goes to work asap while a shrimp will need a few days to start decomposing.For the shrimp ammonia levels to hit the same spot that the pure ammonia levels start out at already you are loosing I'd say at least a week. The longest cycling has taken me is 3 weeks and the quickest is 8 days. ( I used dr tims one and only for the 8 day cycle)
I have been using pure ammonia from dr tim's line of fish stuff, it is one drop per gallon and is a breeze to dose with. Cost me $2 on amazon lol

If you use reagular ace pure ammonia you have to mess with the dosing to get where you wanna be. I always ended up overdosing using it but thats not a bad thing anyways.