Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi ppl,

I got the following results today.

pH 8.2
amm 0
nitrites 0
natrates 0

The system is 2 weeks old, have about 15 gold fish 4 to 10 cms
30 to 40 lettuce sprouts 1 cm high and about 20 basil sprouts 1 cm high in the vert tubes.

Im not sure what this means, i think in means all is well but not sure

thx springa

Springa, did you seed your system at all with anything?

Have your previous results indicated a spike in ammonia and then a spike in nitrites??

If not then you may not be cycled yet.

Rup,

the gold fish have been in the water trough for 2 years, i just added the pump, grow bed and vert tubes and threw in the seeds a day later to see what happened i probably should have read more


springa

Springa, its a bit hard with out a base line level.

BUT if the fish have been in the SAME water for the last two years then i'd say it is cycled with the bacteria being all over the surface area of the trough.

did you ever feed the goldies? if not then it will account for the lack of nitrates.

what i would do now is to SLOWLY start feeding the goldies while monitoring ammonia and nitrite levels. at the first sign of an increase then maintain the level of feed, if it continues to rise then reduce the amount of feed.

no i never feed them steve,

ive put the feelers out and i have about 5 of the local fishermen keeping the small cod and yellas they catch, about 20 cm in length. I plan to add them and i figure that ill get them slowly. i am going to buy some native fish food, still trying to find this though.

another thing i have water lillys in there and a heap of under water plants growing up from the bottom of the tank, im sure there having an effect aswell

springa

yep what steve said. If ammonia or nitrite rise too much you have to water change to dilute it to prevent it killing the fish. Best to keep them nice and low.
Other than that what does the test mean? pretty much perfect water. My water from the tap doesn't test that good lol
But ya keep testing over the first month and record each test. Easier to track a cycle once ya have a few tests to compare.

Makes more sense now, the water plants will be stripping the nitrates. all in all i'd say the trough is well and trully cycled with a population of bacteria thriving.

Slowly is a good idea with the fish additions, and you do realise that there won't be any more goldies once you put the cod in ?

yeah the gold fish have aggreed to become part of the food cycle. not sure they fully understand that they are at the bottom of the cycle

springa

so steve should i pull out the under water plants? or leave them? I think leave them myself as my grow bed is small and only 6 vert tubes.


springa

Feed you goldies and test your nitrates.... if need be add some more fish and/or feed more until you get up to a nitrate level around 10-20....

If you're testing around there and everythings growing fine then you're laughing

The tank may be cycled but until you start adding fish food you will not know how many bacteria are actually living there. Not much fish poo = not much bacteria food. So ya the bacteria are in ballance with the amount of waste being produced.... which means that you want to probably start to add a bit of fish food and build up the amount over the weeks. Keep an eye on the ammonia and nitrite levels and back off feeding if they start to rise.
Hard to know how cycled the setup is until you test it. I'd almost say that the day you start feeding the fish is day 1 of the cycle.
still tho it's a nice water test result, wish all the frican tanks were testing like that instead of 'watchange me'ppm nitrate.

dons right.

But i think cycled means that there is a bbacterial population that is currently processing the ammonia load. Of course ANY time you increase the load (by feeding or new fish) there will be a period where the bacteria will increase in population to meet the new load.

if fish / food are introduced slowly then this may not even be evident.

A system that is cycled (like yours) will always have lesser and shorter peaks than a brand new tank or biofilter.

look at it this way a new system relies ona small number of ever present nitrifying bacteria to increase to a size that can handle the fish load.

under ideal conditions the bacteria may double in population in say 36 hrs, so you can see how an already established colony can snap to attention.

If theres plants or algae growing in the system they can absorb the ammonia as it is produced by fish and make the nitrite/nitrate part of the cycle redundant.
Ya need to feed food to see if the nitrite eaters are in big enuf numbers.
Having lots of plants and hardly any bacteria produces a similar effect to amquel in that ammonia is no problem while it can handle the load but a nitrite spike can sneak up on you.
When ammonia makes it all the way to nitrate leaving 0ppm ammonia and 0ppm nitrite you know you have a well functioning bacteria colony.

don,

i think i have a system like you described ie plant algae. ill buy some gold fish food and start feeding slowly. The only thing that i was thinking is that the fish allready have alot to eat i think they are allways nibbling on the sides of the tank. Ive since learn t that alot of farmers put gold fish in there stock troughs to keep them clean.

springa

Yes goldfish are like cows.
If you wanted you could feed them some shelled frozen peas.
They are low in protein but goldfish love them.
They are also very cheap and usually onhand.
Your goldys are hardly going to be not getting enfu greens but when you feed on just pellets or flake for ages easy for them to get constipated hey. peas or duckweed in diet usually fix that.
I also like pellets more than flakes, flakes lose nutrients into water really fast, pellets hold food value longer.