Let me explain what this means:
Some people, such as myself, like to use commercial products such as Cycle or StressZyme when doing fishless cycling. Others feel that these products are a waste of money. It's all personal preference, and you can definitely cycle a tank without using any bottled bacteria since they exist everywhere, even floating in the air.
What this person is saying is that he/she preffers to use commercial products whilst cycling while others think they do not help your fish or water quality.
The next part simply means that you do not need to buy 'bottled bacteria' which is what 'cycle' claims to be to cycle your tank and that you can do this just as easily without such products to help you along.
It doesn't say at any point that you do not need ammonia. Ammonia is the food of the bacteria. Without it, they simply don't grow or multiply. So yes, you do need ammonia though I believe 'cycle' may contain some.
Actualy, something about cycle. Recently, I've been seeing how other people have used it and I'm beginning to think that all that's realy in it is ammonia and dead bacteria. The beneficial bacteria you grow in your tank during a cycle, need oxygen and ammonia to survive and so should not realy be able to survive in the bottle. You can, however, it appears, use cycle alone as a substitute for ammonia and monitor water levels until your tank is cycled - you should see the ammonia spike, followed by a nitrIte spike and finaly the nitrAte spike and 0 readings for ammonia/nitrIte. On the other hand, the person I''m reffering to (jay2jay99) may simply have chloramines in their water and their de-chlorinator may only remove the chlorine. In that case, the 'cycle' product doesn't contain anything and it is down to the water conditioner and the stuff in the water...
Right, this is getting complicated and probably incomprehensible
Let it suffice to say that I would not reccomend you follow your LFSs addvice on this one. If you want to save fish lives - do a fishless cycle. A link on how to do this is in my signature. No matter whether the stuff works or not, a cycle takes up to 6 weeks so I doubt 14 days without added ammonia would do anything.
Simplified summary of what cycling is (you said it isn't quite sinking in):
Fish waste contains ammonia. Ammonia is toxic. There are good bacteria that feed on this ammonia. They convert it to nitrIte. NitrIte is also toxic but not so much. There are other good bacteria that feed on this. They convert the nitrIte to nitrAte. NitrAte is far less toxic.
A weekly partial water change with de-chlorinated water keeps nitrAtes under 40 in a carefuly stocked and well-filtered, well-maintained tank.
Fish food or rotting material can also give off ammonia. This is why it is important to not over-feed.
The good bacteria grows in your filter media and gravel/substrate. That is why you must not wash your filter media in water that contains chlorine. Chlorine kills the good bacteria. Rinse it about once a month in old tank water from a water change. You should not need to replace filter media. If you do, only replace one part at a time to let the bacteria re-colonise.
During a cycle, you should test your water for ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte. Your LFS should stock test kits. The liquid-based ones are best, last longer and are more accurate.
When you first start cycling your tank, your ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAtes should be 0. Sometimes tap water contains some nitrAte but don't worry about this. Once ammonia has been added to your tank (could be in the form of pure ammonia, rotting fish food or a frozen prawn for fishless cycling) you will find that your ammonia readings are high. We call this an 'ammonia spike'.
When the good bacteria begin to grow, the ammonia will slowly decrease and nitrIte will start to go up as the bacteria change the ammonia to nitrIte. Eventualy, nitrIte will also 'spike' as it builds up in the water.
When some more good bacteria begin to grow, the nitrIte will begin to go down. NitrAte will spike.
Your tank is cycled when there is 0 ammonia and 0 nitrIte and a higher reading of nitrAte. BUT your tank is only cycled if it has been through the cycling process - tap water that contains 0 ammonia/nitrIte and high nitrAte is NOT cycled!
When you have finished fishless cycling, do a realy big water change with DE-CHLORINATED water (you'll kill the bacteria if you add water with chlorine!) to get nitrAte down to under 40. Test your tank water to make sure this is the reading before you add fish.
If you used fish food or a frozen prawn to cycle, also vacuum your gravel with a gravel vacuum to get rid of the rotting food and debris.
Make sure you add fish as soon as you have done this - just 1 or 2 at first - so that the bacteria don't starve. The fish will feed them with the ammonia in their waste. This will then be turned to nitRite and then to nitrAte. You will remove the nitrAtes by doing a weekly 20-25% water change (always with DE-CHLORINATED water) and doing a gravel vacuum at the same time will keep your tank clean and your fish healthy.
So you see, everything's in balance. Making sure you do keep up with maintainance, don't over-stock, don't add too many fish at once and don't over-feed will serve to retain that balance.
Anyway, good luck and I reccomend you also read the tips link in my signature and the 'new tank syndrome' link (which is a pinned topic in this forum).
If you have any questions, feel free to ask of course.
BTW, (just for the record
) coldwater fishkeeping isn't less complicated - it's just that people who keep goldfish rarely realise they need to cycle their tanks because goldfish are so hardy and people are mis-informed and believe the natural lifespan (not to mention size) of one is much less than it realy is. It's basicaly LFSs' bad advice that is to blame for this (and the fact that people expect their LFS to be knowledgable and help them out which isn't usualy the case). It's an unfortunate cycle.
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