questions on fish / fishless cycling

[demento]

So, I didnt cycle my water right "imagine that, a newbie screwed up".I have a 55 gallon tank, proper filtration, and all that good stuff. I had fish in my tank for about 2 weeks before they all died. How do I continue cycling now that I have no fish in the tank? Should I let it go on its own for a while and keep doing water changes? I am thinking having the fish in there gave it substantial amounts of amonia to get going so I should'nt have to add any amonia right. I really don't want to anyway. My amonnia levels right now say a little over 1. And what do I need before I add more fish. Please help me on this, its driving me nuts. I have read alot on fishless cycling but not anywhere can I find info on how to mix fishless and fish cycling. "sigh"

[Faramir]

You need to add ammonia. What you've got in there will not last long.

Levels of 5ppm are what you need to be shooting for.

[JSchmidt]

At this point, you're not mixing fishless and fishy cycling. You've got no fish in there, so you're doing a straight fishless cycle. All the stuff you might read about fishless cycling applies: dose to 5 ppm, as Faramir notes, don't bother changing water, elevate the temp to 84 degrees or so, add enough ammonia each day to return the tank to its 5 ppm reading, etc.

It's unfortunate about your fish dying, but cycling has just become immeasurably easier. Just dose with ammonia and wait...

Good luck,
Jim