Oh boy. Ok first of all I am not new to fishkeeping, but cycling a tank is very new to me. See when i got my first tank the idiot at the ptestore told me nothing, thank god we were on a well or my fish would have died from the water i used alone!
That said... I have NEVER cycled a tank and have alwasy been successfull.
Right now I have a 10 gallon going, it was an emergency set up from my mother... she pulled a "I don't want this crap anymore" on me so I took the 10 gallon set up only to find 3 very sick goldies in her little pond, so I took them home to save them. No time for a cycle, so here I am cycling a tank with fish and lots of them. It was not planned. I did want 3 or four more feeders in the tank though so i sent hubby and 4 year old to the store for "a few feeders" what I got was almost 30 feeders (he asked for 1 dozen), an african cichlid, and 3 danios. Yay. Now I am doing daily 50% water changes just to save these poor fishies because the fish store would not take them back. Idiots.
Thats the last time i send hubby to the petstore.
So to solve the huge overstocking problem I scored a 55 gallong tank. Now I have to cycle it and quick. I tested it today, its watertight. My problem? I have no equipment for it so I cannot begin the cycle till I get a filter at the very least.
So here is my delima. Fishless cycle is more humane, but its a 6 week process. If I do it this way then I will continue with thie WAY overstocked 10 gallon tank till them. If i do a fishie cycle I can get many of these fish into the 55 gallon and get it going, but I may loose some. I really don't know what to do. My family really put me in a pickle here.
As for testing, nitrates ect... honestly i know nothing about it.
So since there are so many opinions here on how to cycle a tank I am even more confused. If YOU were in MY situation (need to have the 55 gallon going ASAP) how would you choose to do it? Fish cycle or fishless? I already have the fish needed.
As for the product cycle, I use it. I use it to reduce fish stress when doing water changes and stuff, dont know if it works but I feel that its not hurting. I didn;t used to use Cycle and had no problem