Tigerhair Posted March 5, 2002 Report Share Posted March 5, 2002 What is the recommended method of cycling in NZ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 5, 2002 Report Share Posted March 5, 2002 Is this a trick question? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerhair Posted March 5, 2002 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2002 Nope! Just interested really. There seems to be so many different ways of doing it here in the UK! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 6, 2002 Report Share Posted March 6, 2002 Assuming you mean cycling as a sport where you ride bicycles, what ways do you mean? I thought you would buy a bike (and a helmet, they are compulsory in NZ) hop on it and cycle in a forward direction. What other ways do you have in mind? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerhair Posted March 6, 2002 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2002 Um, no, sorry, I meant cycling a tank (that's what we call it) - after setting up a tank you go through "new tank syndrome" - the nitrogen cycle... I don't know what you guys call it out there Sorry to confuse you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted March 6, 2002 Report Share Posted March 6, 2002 The most common way I am aware of is set the tank up with all the decorations, plants etc, leave it a couple of days to 'settle in' ie water up to correct temperature etc. add a couple of cheap fish (to minimise the painful pocket syndrome if the worst does happen) and maintain the tank as per normal (ie feed (sparingly), regular water changes etc) and gradually over the course of weeks/months increase the stocking level. People will also help the process along with either water from an established tank or filter mulm/media from a filter on an estabilished tank. Some may buy products such as Cycle (live bacteria) to speed the whole process along. I would tentativley say that the majority of freshwater hobbyists don't tend to monitor the ammonia, nitrite or nitrate levels during the cycling period. This doesn't seem to be the case with the Marine hobbyists, they seem to shove a dead mussel in the tank, religously monitor ammonia, nitrite or nitrate and only when the tank has clearly cycled (based on their graph of the different chemicals) add a hardy fish and go from there. [ This Message was edited by: Rob on 2002-03-07 15:25 ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 6, 2002 Report Share Posted March 6, 2002 Pardon my sense of humour. I assumed you meant cycling a tank (after I thought about it a bit) but already had a mental picture of people riding bikes with tanks tied to the carrier We cycle a tank as Rob suggests but tell people to set up at least a week before adding fish to allow for any problems setting the temperature on the heaterstat. We then slowly add fish (say 3 or 4 a week depending on species and size)to let the filter media grow the required bacteria, until we have the required stocking level. I know a lot of people use Cycle or other products but I don't like to add anything to my tank if I can help it. I can't remember the last time I had any disease in my tanks, in fact I don't own any medications at all. I gather Cycle is supposed to speed the process up a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigerhair Posted March 6, 2002 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2002 Thanks guys - pretty much the same except us UKers seem to monitor the Ite and Amm. We generally add a couple of hardy fish at the beginning, wait 4 - 6 weeks until the Ite and Amm are reading zero, then start stocking from there. We have had discussions about Cycle and it's usefulness - I'm not one for adding stuff to the tank either, just for the sake of it! The other way is to try and avoid a cycle altogether if you can run the filter in a tank that is already established - my fave because I have 4 tanks running currently. Thanks for the help and don't apologise for the humour, please I was a little worried that you guys call it something else and you thought I was mad. Well, I am!!!! :razz: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted March 6, 2002 Report Share Posted March 6, 2002 You'd probably fit into NZ very well then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted March 28, 2002 Report Share Posted March 28, 2002 I am in the lucky position of being able to answer questions on both types of cycling: 1. Most common types of Cycling in NZ are Road Cycling and Mountain Biking. I do both. We have many good roads for road cycling and heaps of the best tracks in the world for mountain biking. Because NZ is quite rugged and peaky the mountain bike tracks can be very steep, fast and technical. There are relaxed tracks too (which make a nice change now and then). 2. Tank cycling. I used to do it the way the books say; fill it up, start the filter, wait 3-4 weeks and begin adding fish a few at a time. Not any more! I have quite a few tanks and filters - Apart from the fish room (which runs on a central filter - easy to add/remove tanks). I set up the new tank and pinch some of the already formed media from a couple of other tanks. After adding a biological starter (for security only) I put the fish in about 1 hour later. There are never any spikes of any sort and all goes well from day one. You cannot do this if you are just starting out however (unless you can get cycled media from a friend). It did take a while to get the feel for setting tanks up this way, but the learning process was very quick and painless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.