OK Freshwater boys, obviously the nitrogen cycle is similar in freshwater to salt. Ammonia -> nitrite ->nitrate, and we usually go one stage further -> nitrogen gas , which is a step usually omitted from freshwater (plants and water changes get you out of trouble).
But here's where the similarity stops. You can actully just cycle a salt tank like fresh, but nobody , or not many people have bothered doing that since about 1990. Because we just buy all our bacteria in by putting live rock in the tank. By adding live rock not only do you add a fantastic filter material but also huge amounts of microfauna including a full suite of filter bacteria, already establisehed on the liverock. It is perfectly possible (though I wouldn't recommend it 100%) to setup a tank of water , heat it , let it settle, go to the shops a couple days later, buy xxx kilos of live rock, add it, give it a day or so to settle and get stocking. You'll get algae problems down the road, but the tank is effectively cycled, or well on the way, when the liverock goes in there.
The typical route B with liverock is to buy it 'uncured' so lots of stuff is still going to be dying/rotting on it, and let all that act as the source of ammonia.
Salt setup is very different to fresh- the principles are the same, but the practice/methods are not.
