Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So, I am using powdered ammonia to do a fishless cycle. I am at the point where I got nitrites/nitrates and ammonia is going down, so I guess bacteria is doing their stuff.

I don't think we will be able to get this completely up for fish in the time we have before extremely cold, so I was thinking on maintaining it via pure ammonia for a few months.

What would be the ppm/dosage I should keep? As in, how much ammonia would fish be generating if they were there?

We have around 250 gallons of water on the tote.

Are you using Ammonium Chloride?

Yes. I got this from amazon https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00 ... UTF8&psc=1

There's a chart on the forum somewhere showing temps for the bacteria.If I remember correctly,by the time the water temperature goes below 15C/59F,the conversion from Ammonia (eventually) to Nitrate is reduced by 50%.At 5C/41F,the bacteria stop altogether."Extremely cold" sounds too cold.In other words it probably won't work.


If you had warm temperatures,in your 250 gallon system,you would need about a quarter - half a teaspoon to reach between 2 & 4 ppm.After you add that DO NOT ADD MORE!,just let the bacteria do it's job.Once Ammonia & Nitrite are at 0 and the Nitrate is measurable,put in the same amount you put in at the start & if Ammonia & Nitrite are at 0 again in 24 hours,you're fully cycled.

depends how many fish,what fish & how big the fish are.Try this http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/guide ... -stocking/

Chloride is a salt,plants aren't fond of it.I would use it sparingly.It's not a problem for cycling,but if you're going to try topping up the system for a few months,it might cause a problem in the future.

So I don't think I have many options there right? If I don't get the fish or find a way to warm up the system, I may as well stop everything and wait until spring to restart everything?

Info here on bacteria /temperature

Scroll down to Biological data

http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html

There are other forms of ammonia and you could also use things that break down to release ammonia and other necessary nutrients (for example - a combination of blood and bone meal has been used before or perhaps some organic fertilizer that has an appropriate form of nitrogen). A small quantity is all you would need - At low temps the bacteria won't be doing much conversion or anything else and they should survive the winter with minimal or no additions on your part - in other words you can probably either skip adding something or only add something a couple of times during the warmer parts of winter.

If this is an outdoor system then yep, way too cold in Michigan to run the system through the winter without heating the water. I'll also point out that you probably have day lengths that are too short to grow much in the way of plants as well. I'd wait and get the fish in spring - let someone else feed them and take the losses for the winter.

Hope this helps

My view is that the fish are only a minute part of the whole system. As humans involved in aquaculture they become more prominent obviously. Assuming the pool doesn't turn to a complete ice block over the cool period, i would proceed. Due to the cold, mosquitos/algae are not you enemies. I personally would abandon what some humans would do and just try to, as a minimum emulate the conditions occuring in nature in your part of the world. The human advantage is to facilitate ideal conditions not recreate.

This has been typed from my heart, i hope it helps.