Fish Cycling (any Downsides?)

[hollyp0p]

So I've messed up and added 4 fish (2 tiger barbs, to Jack Damsey's) to my brand new 55 gallon. So I've decided that twice daily water changes gets old fast (and the fish don't seem to like it, either). So what if I do this? Feed the fish as normal, expect them to die, and cycle my tank this way? Like instead of buying ammonnia, letting fish produce the ammonnia? I know in the long run the ammonnia would be better than my idea, but besides only having a bacterial colony cycled for 4 fish, are there any other dissadvantages? Like, will a dying/dead fish leave long term effects? See...I'm just hoping perhaps a fish or two will survive. Oh, and what about this: I've two 20 watt bulbs for my 55 gallon, I've heard you should have 2 watts per gallon if you are wanting to grow plants, but I can't find this sort of ligting (I've seen one solution, but it's like $200). So are there any hardy plants that will grow in my lighting conditions? Low light level plants are what I'm talking about.

Go out and buy some 'Safestart' by Tetra Aqua and add that with your water changes, it's worked fine so far for me!

 

[ollyhtafc]

It depends on your lfs.A lot of them don't know about fishless cycling (hence why many are uninformed).
You can buy it labelled as a cleaning product,as to where you can buy it it depends on your location i guess.

Plants should be fine as far as i know.
And you could also pick up a test kit for GH (general hardness of water) although it's perhaps not as essential as ammonia nitrite, pH and nitrate.

 

[xptweakerntn]

As a cleaning product..so from some other place, I have to make sure that it is pure ammonnia, right?

 

[ollyhtafc]

Yeah, check the label (obviously) and another test i read was to shake the bottle...if there are bubbles on the top, don't use it.