You can’t avoid the cycle, in a 3 gallon toxins it will build up very quickly. You also don’t want to avoid the cycle, I’d use bottled bacteria or drop in a bag of cycled media if your doing a fish in cycle. I do both in all my tanks and they’re almost always cycled immediately, within a day...
You’re really cycling your tank the hard way lol. Just get some quality bottled bacteria and a little bit of cycled media from a trusted source and you can immediately start stocking lightly. I cycle my tanks in a day or two this way
I’d definitely add bottled bacteria, i usually add cycled media and bottled bacteria and stock light right away and my tanks are always cycled in a few days
He’s about 12”, they had big bags lol He’s in a 4x2x2 right now, but when I get a bigger tank for the jardini, he’ll get the 6x2x2. The jardini is way bigger and had to be transported in a 4’ cooler