I will describe how I cycle aquariums. I have been doing it this way since the mid to late 80's, but freshwater with no bottled bacteria. My freshwater cycles could take up to two months or more. When doing this tank, which I am referring to for the rest of this post, after setting up and filling. My guesstimate on the water volume was slightly off because when adding Dr. Tim's Ammonium chloride my ammonia level was around .25 , was shooting for .20.
I had no filtration (floss) or skimmer during this time. All pumps were running and ATO was set up and keeping it level. I added the required amount of Microbactor XLM to the tank after the ammonia was in the tank. I added 10 ml of the XLM per day after the first day during the cycle. I checked ammonia level daily. Once the ammonia levels dropped to 0 using the API test kits, I started adding 12 drops per day of Ammonium Chloride (17 gal. estimated volume). This will keep ammonia in the tank, feeding the bacteria that consumes it. Even when testing for nitrites, I tested for ammonia, which always showed 0. The cycle took approximately 12 days, The last 3 days i ran out of XLM and dosed 10 ml of microbactor 7 per day which i keep on hand anyway. when the nitrites dropped to 0 on day 12, the next day I did a 40% water change and transferred the two Bengai cardinals to the tank. This is a very small bio load, there is a chance I may dose 1 or 2 drops of ammonia every other day for the first 3 to 4 days after feeding starts. This level will do no harm to the fish, but lessens the chance of losing my cycle.
