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What i would like to know is..some people say the best way is to do fishless cycling.But what about cycling the tank with 2-3 zebra danios(hardy fish)...once you have an ammonia source in your tank,it's only a matter of time before the desired bacteria establish a colony in your filter bed.The most common way is to place one or two hardy fish in your tank!!
Or should i just go with a fishless cycling?..and how long will the cycling take with/with out hardy fish?
My tank will be 150L/40 US gallons.
Robby

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I know human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully.

i prefer a fishless cycle although white cloud minnows are also quite hardy. alternatively you can just drop a small dead prawn in your tank to produce ammonia. you could also squeeze a filter foam from a established tank into your filter to help with bacteria.

In a 40 gallon tank you'd probably want to use more fish, I would probably go with about 6 zebra danios or white clouds. I don't recommend fishless cycling personally, because I think it is too much of a hassle, especially with commercially available bacterial starters that we have now that make "stocked" cycling a lot more humane. Grab a bottle of New & Improved Cycle, IME it speeds up the cycling process.

By either method you can expect the cycle to take about a month, give or take. The only answer I can give for how long your cycle will take is: As long as it takes.

I don't recommend rotting a prawn in your tank to cycle it, I just don't think it's a hygienic way of doing it. Also, squeezing someone's dirty filter pad over your filter is just going to put their fish poo into your filter, not a good idea.

If you do want to "seed" your tank from an established one, borrow a bit of their gravel, stick it in a nylon sock and hang it in the tank, close to the filter intake. Also, if you have a friend with an established tank, ask if he/she would run your filter on it for a few weeks to get it nice and populated with good bacteria. You can also borrow used filter media and stick that in your filter, borrowed decorations from established tanks, etc. Every wet surface in an established tank that is exposed to oxygenated water will have beneficial bacteria on it.

Read this article for more info about the nitrogen cycle and feel free to PM me if you have any further questions. [link=Clicky!]http://www.fishprofiles.net/faq/begin-cycling.asp" style="COLOR: #FFa500[/link]

I have to agree whole heartedly with trystianity. Try to get some media from an already established tank to set up a new one. I had so many problems with my first tank, it was awful. Then I took the filter sponge from my brother-in-laws tank and poof, my tank was seeded and I was ready to go. Some LFSs may have seeded filter media for that purpose, you need to ask them specifically for it.

I fishless cycled my 50 gallon tank and it took 7 WEEKS for it to cycle. Gahh...it was HORRIBLE!!!