For me, maturing an aquarium is, to some degree, about giving yourself the least risk of negative outcomes to inhabitants.
This is true, one of my ideas was that no aquarium needs to be setup by only utilizing brand new elements. They can be seeded easily beforehand, which is extremely common. The most common being the already seasoned sponges from other aquariums, or plants that have already adapted to the water it will be raised in. Even the substrate can be seeded, as I have utilized soil/mud/or sand from established ponds as a nutrient layer before capping it with sand.
Which is why, on the topic of utilizing inert elements, I find that preventing heavy exposure to anything that is active, like soils, ferts, and food, is how you prevent instability within early stages. Its how a lot of my aquariums avoided negative effects towards the inhabitants.
I recently attempted a simple shrimp bowl with only sand and pearlweed within a few minutes. With the only other additives being a bicarbonate buffer (crushed coral) and some dead tree leaves. The idea was that by not having anything at all to influence the system, like food, ferts and soils, as part of the setup, one could easily keep animals without waiting. That bowl is way past that stage now, and I am having to trim every week despite not having much influence besides the dead tree leaves and the shrimp and snails. I know why it works and how good it can be for beginners, but convincing others that it can work is challenging due to the broad skepticism.
Aquarium stability and health is more than just an aquarium that has completed its initial 'cycling' period.
Agreed, but sadly many still believe in the 'cycling' period being the absolute judgement on whether an aquarium is considered healthy or not. More importantly, the vast majority only believe in one 'cycling' method and discredit others as blasphemy and fish abuse.
It pains me every day when I see someone who is asking for help with a sick fish, or a problem with their aquarium, and the only response they receive is gaslighting remarks about how they didn't 'cycle' the aquarium the exact same way they did and how they must hate their fish for not having an API Freshwater Master Test Kit™ available.
Because every disease and infection with fish is solved by making sure your nitrate readings are below 20ppm... lol.
I understand that I may be preaching to the coir here, but I find my favorite phrase to be "cycled does not equal thriving", as a way to throw silly banter towards the common non-argument: "surviving does not equal thriving" which I am sure many here have seen.
