Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So I was chugging along, singing a song, testing every few days and all my levels were pretty normal.

pH in the mid to high 7's (new system, so I believe this is normal).

No ammo, no nitrites and nitrates were in the 5-10 range as of 4/25.

I planted a few basil plants and everything seemed fine.

On 4/29 i decided to test again and all levels were the same except for my nitrate which now read 160!!!

Thinking it may be an error on my part, i waited a couple of hours, retested and same thing, 160.

I am stumped. The only real change in the system was the addition of the basil, which is still in relative infancy.

Any thoughts? I will be topping off with rain water today to see if that helps bring down the levels.

I am confused as to how the system was running with such low nitrates WITHOUT plants and once plants were introduced, it seems to have shot up lol.

Lots of possibilities - I would recheck your procedure and make sure your timing and mixing are as directed... Might have had another source of ammonia like something decaying in the system and then being converted to nitrate. Might be something going on with a water temperature change and the bacteria kicking in as it warms up - a lot of these biological processes kick into a higher gear at around 55 to 60 degrees F.