In the interest of honesty and fair disclosure I must say that what I do and what is the best preffered method do not line up.
The best way and preffered method by the aquaculture industry is to use a clean source of ammonia. You can find pure unscented ammonia with no additives (including no silicates) at many stores being sold as a cleaning solution. Local to me Smart and Final sells a product as does the dollar store. The concentration of these products varies as does the amount it will take to spike your tank to 1ppm. The variation tak to tak has to do with the amount of water, rock, plumbing, sand, etc so it is not a set per gallon formula.
To use the chemical version you will slowly increase the amount (usually by the mL) and then test, then increase, then test, then increase, then test until you get to 1. Then based on this forumla you dose wait the 8 hours, then test. If the test comes out as .5 ammonia you add half as much ammonia as it took to get to 1. If it comes out a .2 then you add 80% well you get the picture, keep it at 1 for as long as possible. 1 is good, more is bad.
Once the tank will clear 1 ppm to 0 in 8 hours then test for nitrite if the reading is 0 your good. If the reading is not 0 then spike the ammonia back to 1. Repeat until both are zero.
With the chemical method after the ammonia and nitrite both read zero you need to do a 90% WC in order to clear the chemicals and stablaize pH. Once pH is stable and the levels are at 0, your good to go and can add everything you want to the tank that day. There is no need for a slow start with this method.
From my understanding from correspondance with David Warland (he's a member here so he'll call me on it if I'm wrong) that as long as the nitrite and nitrate do not exceed 200 then there is no need to do a water change before the ammonia hits zero, but levels above 200 are harmful to the bacteria you are trying to grow the same as levels above 1ppm ammonia are harmful. David's an old school seahorse breeder and know runs a really large tuna breeding facility so I trust him, never asked him for sources, he does it in the field it works I'm good with that.
What I do is different. I let the rock cure while cooking it meaning I keep it with a lot of flow at a higher temp. Then I add a days worth of food or a cube of mysis per pair of seahorses. I do this over and over again for at least a week or so before I test. You could test to see if the ammonia was above 1 just from the mysis but IME it never has been so I quit testing for it. I' lazy on some things.
When I cycle with mysis after the ammonia hits zero and the nitrite hits zero I add my clean up crew and any macro algaes I desire. Then I continue to feed the tank but add nothing else for the next 12 weeks.
The 12 week mark is actually very important. If you want to add stuff sooner you want to go chemical. The reason for the 12 week lag is that all that extra food is a breeding ground for many things, some good some bad. The pods will go crazy and establish themselves especially the herpactoid pods at first and later the calanoid pods. The herps will eat the extra food the cal's will eat the algae. The 12 weeks also give enough time for all of the unwanted parasites to die. They can come in on the snails or hermits, but can not live past 12 weeks without a live host.
The 12 weeks also gives me time for the tank to go through the other mini cycles they go through the hair algae, the cyano, the diatoms, all without me having to worry about the livestock. During this period I can see exactly how the tank is going to run once I have horses orother livestock and is the ideal time to fix any problems I may have.
Tanks run different. I don't know why. Some of my tanks have had no problems, so show algae problems, some flow stuff, the 12 weeks is great.
After the 12 weeks with my preferred method I feel i really have a good sense of my tank and where it is going and where it will go. many seasoned aquarists cringed just reading this FWIW, but it is what I do and will continue to do, although it is looked down on by most.
The worst way to cycle is with live fish, it's just cruel and then you gotta tear the tank apart to get them out, don't do it.
It is a very common misconception that you can cycle a tank with just liverock. That if you fill a new tank with liverock and wait for the ammonia to read zero that you are ready to go. A tank can read zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and zero nitrate and being completely incapable of supporting life. Zero ammonia just means there is zero ammonia not that the tank has processed it.
HTH
Sorry I'm long winded.
