I have fishless cycled a number of tanks and I do it using a different dosing method.
1. Set up tank and plant as you do. Plants eat the same thing the bacteria do, so you actually need less bacteria.
2. Raise Tank temp into the mid 80s.
3. Dose 5-6 drops of pure ammonia per 10 gals of water daily.
4. After about a week you can begin to test for nitrites. When they appear, reduce the daily ammonia dose to 3-4 drops per 10 gals daily until nitrites go to 0.
5. When nitrites 0 out the tank is cycled. Do a large water change, turn down the temp to desired levels and fully stock the tank. You should have nitrates at this point and the water change will lower them to safe levels.
One of the main benefits of doing a fishless cycle is it enables you to fully stock the tank all at once. If you can not add fish when the tank is cycled, continue to dose 3-4 drops daily until you do to maintain the cycle. In a fully cycled tank that amount of ammonia should be undectectible w/i 2 hours of dosing. Also, if you don't add the full fish load right away, you will then have to add future fish as if you had done a regular cycle with fish- ie slowly over time.
Do not add Cycle to the tank- it is a compete waste of money and may contain phosphates which will give algae a nice jump start in the tank.
The drops/gallon method was the original one used. The add ammonia til readings was later developed to allow for ammonia in different strangths to be used w/o problems. An old bottle of ammonia is not as strong as a brand new one. Having fishless cycled about 10 planted tanks I can say the drops method has always worked fine for me.
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