Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does this actually work?
Can I just replace my nutrient water with urine?
What kind of pre-processing does it need?

I have a 30gal bio filter with about 100$ worth of K1(so like 2-3cuft). I am running so far with no succes, I am using rabbit urine speciffically but cannot detect any ammonia with fish test kit. It has been running for a week but the water is the same dingey color as when I started.

I dropped the ph from 9 (its natural state) to 7 and ran for another week but i still see no changes.

I launched 3 tests on plants without any pre-processing, all 3 has the ppm has been dropped to 800:
1 control with plant food,
1 with urine ph 9,
1 with urine ph 7.

but both urine plants are yellowing.


what am i doing wrong, and how do i know when its right?

Urine takes time and makes a steady ammonia stream while it breaks down. It has to he converted from urea into ammonia. I have used urine to cycle tanks but i have never strictly run a system on it. It was an interesting process with weird results but it worked

Plants need more than just nitrates anyway. You get additional minerals from any mineralization of fish waste and nutrients from uneaten fish food. Poor fish feed ussually makes lots of nutrient difficiencies. Your waste is a direct reflection of your eating habbits so you may or may not be excreting additional nutrients for the plants. Also watch the salt level of your tanks. You excrete salt in your urine and when urea breaks down it make salts aswell. Thats what causes salt poisoning in potted plants because people use animal waste fertilizers. You can but then you have to water your potted plants heavily pretty regularly to flush out the salt build ups.

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Hi there, you can quickly and easily transform urine into ammonia. It only takes a couple of minutes to do so compared to the natural way. Depending on how much urine you want to use, grab a handful of Watermelon seeds, blend them very fine and throw them into the urine. Stir. As I said, it takes seconds to minutes to be transformed into ammonia. Then simply strain with a fine cloth and there you go, you can add your ammonia to your system. It shortens the cycling time drastically.