Cycling my tank with frozen brine shrimp?

[Linoleum Knife]

I've had my tank set up for around 10 days now with filter, eco-complete, heater, plants, etc. but no fish of any kind. I'm still debating on what I want to stock my tank with, and only Petsmart and Petco are really convenient to stop by on my way home from work. Neither have any fish I'm really interested in. I've felt like my tank isn't cycling to its full potential because I don't have any ammonia production, and my plants would probably like some fertilizer too (not dosing ferts yet). So today I picked up some cheap frozen brine shrimp and dropped in a cube. Do I have the right logic here? Let the brine shrimp decay and produce ammonia? Is one cube probably enough for several days? Seems like a lot for a 28 gallon, but I could be wrong.

Thanks!

 

[Rbishop]

You will need a good liquid test kit for tracking you tank progress. Do you have one?

Have you read this...

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84598

 

[jpappy789]

:iagree:

read the sticky and get a test kit. I have found that adding pure ammonia is the fastest, and most efficient way to cycle as you can easily add a specific dose, where as decaying things are more of a guess.

 

[OldMan47]

In the US, ammonia is easy to find at an Ace Hardware. It will be in with the cleaning supplies because it is a good glass cleaner. The label on the bottle I got says "Clear Ammonia all purpose cleaner". You do not want the fancy ammonia with the lemon scent or the surfactants. The clear ammonia will give you plenty of ammonia with a very small dose. I would try a teaspoonful and measure the resulting concentration so you can adjust it up a bit if needed, or not if you are over 4 ppm. The bottle costs a couple of dollars and is a lifetime supply for aquariums. If you also use it as a cleaning product you would use it up in only a few years.