Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've yet to actually setup a system but should be in the next few days. I see tons of build and setup videos but having a hard time finding water testing numbers. Could someone give me some guidelines on what I want to be getting? My test system I got tests for: pH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Carbonate Root, Hardness, Free Chlorine, Total alkalinity, Iron and Copper.
Thanks so very much !!!

Dont worry too much.

Systems tend to make nice stable environments once they are established.

What you are looking for in the end is no amonia, no nitrites, and whatever nitrates.

Nitrates you can pretty much ignore. Tomato season will eat them all up wherever you are in the world.

What is your pH reading?


Once you are cycled, the other stuff will be stable pretty much for ever unless you put too much fish meat/fish food in by weight.

pH is probably the only thing you might struggle with if you start with the wrong media.

Everything else will take care of itself.

You do need to start the ammonia to nitrites, to nitrates process...

One option is to just get some healthy human urea into the system.. like a cup or so.

It's called Humonia here.

pee pee

Basically its ammonia that you looking for s the start of the process.


That will change into nitrites as your system develops the required bacteria or whatever it is, and then something else changes that to nitrates.

Nitrates is what what we want.

It's what plants want... like Brawndo (Obscure irrelevant reference to the best movie ever made. I'm serial, buy it today. )

https://youtu.be/lUTZmSyDErg


Ignore that last bit... I tend toward the irrelevant and the irreverent..