Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

1

I think you have a good idea about having a filter pre cycled in a bucket so that HSM can be avoided. However, those filters only have so much surface area and can only handle a few fish. On the next phase of my large AP system I am going to cycle up a filter before fish are added. I have a fluidized sand bed filter and a bubble washed bead filter which, in theory, can handle 16 pounds of fish. They are small and took 39 days to cycle up, but I think they are the answer to being able to fully stock a system and keep the ammonia at 0 while the gravel cycles up in a new system.

Cheap, simple, and works, Fishless cycling. Sort of like what you were talking about with the aquarium filter on the bucket feeding it fish food but take it a step further along the lines of cheap, simple and works. For an aquaponics system that is going to support more than the equivalent of your entire fish room in fish flesh, one aquarium filter that has been cycled on a bucket with fish food is really only a drop in a bucket though it will be perfect jump start for a small AP system bassed on one aquarium.

For really cheap simple and works fishless cycling, one just needs to apply some ammonia (without additives) to the system in measured doses for a few weeks and keep up with the testing. That way, system is cycled before fish arrive and the stress of spikes doesn't hurt anybody.

For and even cheaper version, bottle some of your own personal humonia for the task. One should be relatively healthy for this task but it is simple. For safety, one can save the urine in a bottle for a couple weeks (or however long it takes for that person's urine to reach a pH of 9 or more, this can vary from person to person but I found mine usually reached that pH in 10 days or less.) Letting the urine age in a bottle allows the urea to convert to ammonia which raises the pH and kills off certain ubiquitous bacteria like e. coli. Benefits to these changes, more sanitary of course but even more important, the ammonia is already converted to a measurable form which can help avoid over dosing of ammonia.
The only drawback I see with using humonia for fishless cycling is that the strength will vary so being overly scientific with the measurments is not possible as urine varies in strength from person to person as well as throughout the day. I found that a barrel ponics system cycled fine using less than 200 mL of hummonia per day.
The 600 gallon big system, 400 mL per day seemed to be enough.

Hopefully that didn't gross out too many people and that the thread continues with more tips and tricks that people find useful!

Oh, another thing I've found really handy to do.
fill up a few paint strainer bags with washed media and place them where ever they can get pre-cycled in prep for adding new grow beds. The 5 gallon paint strainer bags seem to be a pretty good size that if not filled too full can still be rubberbanded closed and moved around. Do be careful as the mesh will probably deteriorate if left exposed to UV rays for very long.

There are also 1 gallon pain strainer bags that would probably be appropriate for small scale (aquarium based) systems.

dont forget, a filter will need a source of ammonia to keep the bacteria alive and growing

Took 2 weeks to be fully cycled without fish from nada, using household ammonia from a local grocery store. The only trick is finding ammonia with no detergents (foams when you shake it) or fragrance added.

My tip (thanks Steve, EB, and Simmo): loop siphons. Easy, cheap, as long as the pump flow stays consistent they work all day every day. Mine have been working continuously for over a year, only problem I had was when the 1/2" rubber tubing from the pump got biofilm builup and the flow was lessened, then siphons didn't start as they should. Now it is running from a 3/4" PVC pipe and haven't had issues since.

I use baking soda to keep my pH up, that is easy to find and cheap, barring something better like potassium carbonate.

Lemon juice to take pH down if necessary.