Cycling with fish

Question
Hi Nicole, you may remember me from my various other questions.
Anyway, I have been searching for the last month almost for some type of ammonia. There is only one fish specialist store in my area and they dont carry ammonia, no grocery stores, no hardware stores, nobody carries ammonia! Is there another way to cycle my tank without fish or will I have to get a couple danios and used filter media with some cycle and hope for the best? Please help me out, thanks in advance.

Answer
Good evening Garrett, thank you for your question.

There certainly is another way! :) In fact, I don't use ammonia myself. I just use a pinch of fish food.

Give your empty tank a teeny pinch of flakes (what you would give a single guppy, for instance) and leave the lights on as you normally would. 10-12 hours of light (or longer, if you choose) coupled with the flakes once a day as an ammonia source, should do the trick. Some people also have success with putting a small piece of cocktail shrimp in their tanks and letting it dissolve over the course of a few days.

Good luck, Garrett, and thank you so much for being a conscientious aquarist and thinking of alternatives to live fish cycling. There are certainly alternatives out there!

Nicole