Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've got my first tiny test system up and running and as seems to be the case with most folks, the bug has bitten me and I'm ready to ramp up. I'll be buying 100 channel catfish babies next weekend, but before I get going, I had a couple of questions I would love some input on.

I'm here in the US, in northern California to be precise, is there any consensus on a best water test kit to use? As long as it tests for DO, ph, amonia, nitrites, nitrates and uses test tubes not strips, are they all fine?

I would love to get a head start getting the bacteria up and running and at a local fish store they have a bunch of things for sale saying they promote good bacteria in a pond. One I was looking at was called clear pond water treatment (http://www.macarthurwatergardens.com/clear-pond/water-conditioners.shtml). Any idea if something like this is worth getting?

Along this line, is there a best product for water treatment to make hose water safe for fish and plants?

After reading through a bunch of threads, I'm getting the message that spikes (temperature, ph, amonia levels, etc.) are bad. It sounds like one way of reducing the likelihood and severity of spikes is to have a really large tank. The trick is, I can't handle a huge amount of fish. My tank will be in the ground and it could be as large as 1300 gallons. Other than the difficulty with keeping that much water warm (I'll be raising channel catfish), are there any problems with having so much water? Any chance my nutrients will be too spread out or the water won't get cycled enough? I'll be running the water through about 1000 gallons of grow beds that should be kept reasonably well filled with plants, so I'm assuming that will be the limiting factor for my stocking density. The whole system will be inside a green house using a flood/drain every hour cycle.

Last question. If I wanted to increase the nitrogen removal capacity of my system and provide potential food either for my fish or for chickens/ducks/turkeys that I raise as well, any recommendations for best plants?

Thanks for all the info and examples, I'm looking forward to getting started :-)

Hay there
Test kit the API freshwater master test kit uses drops and test tubes and tests for Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and two ranges of pH. That is the standard test kit that most of us use here in the USA as well as in OZ.

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/199591/product.web There are other brands that would probably be just fine, this is the only one I've used so far though.
The DO test is not as mandatory but with catfish you might be interested in being able to test it. You will probably have to buy that test separately. I got one by a different company and have really only used it once.

Buying bacteria in a bottle, personally, I wouldn't bother spending the extra money. I personally highly recommend fishless cycling, you can look it up using the search function and should find tons of threads and posts about it. Currently DecalsbyJT http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5259 is in the process of cycling up his new system fishlessly and you can read about his progress in his thread.

So I take it your hose water is from city water and not a well? You need to find out if your water utility uses chlorine or chloramine. If it is just chlorine, you can simply air the water out for a period of time before starting cycling. Chlorine can be outgassed by letting it sit out in containers or even quicker by aerating it. Often once a system is well established, people get away with doing small top ups without even treating chlorinated water. However if it is chloramine, you will need to get some sort of water ager or conditioner for it or filter it through something that removes chloramine. The important thing here is to check that whatever product you get, is safe for food fish, most things you buy in the average aquarium shop are definitely not meant for food systems so it will be important to check into that. I can't help you much here since I have well water so no treatment chemical worries.

Yes, spikes are bad. Having lots of water to buffer is usually helpful, so long as you are not tempted to fill that water up with too many fish. You should only have as many fish as your filtration can support. Sounds like 100 catfish to 1000 gallons of grow bed should be ok so long as you have extra aeration for them. Make sure you pump at least 1300 gallons an hour for those fish.

The whole idea of amount of water diluting nutrients doesn't really seem to apply to aquaponics unless you are talking about two goldfish in a big swimming pool trying to support a banana plantation or something. Having more water often just means that it takes a little longer to build up the initial ammonia amount to get cycling started. If you do fishless cycling, this should not be a problem. With only 1000 gallons of grow bed I expect you will find your nutrients are able to get quite high unless you grow only greedy demanding plants.

Hum, extra nitrogen removal plants that the animals will eat. My chickens love new zealand spinach!!!!! It is a handy hot weather green to grow that we don't seem to like that much but it makes good growbed cover and the chickens devour it as soon as I throw them some. Sweet potato vines make good fodder for many animals and grows well in hot weather, the young leaves and vine tips are even edible by people in stir frys and summer salads. Tomato plants are greedy plants though you wouldn't only want to throw the fruits to the animals as the greens are generally not healthy to eat. Broccoli and cabbage in cool weather are greedy plants and edible by both people and animals. Turnips make good fast growing fodder crops in cooler weather. I've planted some bananas and papaya in my system to hopefully use up extra nutrients, the bananas seem to be growing extra fast.

Welcome, Rickoxo.

I use sodium thiosulphate to de-chloramine my water:
http://www.wchemical.com/SODIUM-THIOSULFATE-P51C9.aspx
It's generally also available pretty cheaply on e-bay, and my 1lb bag is going go last for years. Here's an on-line calculator to make a stock solution:
http://www.cnykoi.com/calculators/calcstdose.asp

I've eaten tilapia grown using this, and I'm still alive. I seem to remember discussions about it being safe to eat.

And if you spray the water into a tank as a fine mist, dechlor is usually not needed.

If the water treatment chemical is Chlorine, that is true.

If Chloramine, it doesn't really outgass so spraying is probably not enough if the water is heavily treated.

So I went back and reread the bottle of chloramine fixer I got, and it turns out I don't think it's safe for fish and plants I plan on eating. I'll check out sodium thiosulphate, or see what else the fish store has. I'm not sure the store I went to has much interest in catering to folks planning on eating their fish, so internet might be the way to go.

I'm working on a system that is pretty easy to set up, uses almost all easy to buy components and is simple to maintain and operate so that once I get it up and running, I can bring it to the school I teach at and let the kids get to see it for a while. I just went out and bought 1/2 yard of 1/4" lava rock to use as the grow medium. I like the low weight, expanded clay balls aren't available in bulk anywhere I know of, but man it took a while to clean all the red dust off the lava rock to get it ready to let the system cycle for a while. I'll use your idea TC about running the system for a while before I get the catfish, but I'll stock it with 30 or so gold fish just to get some poop cycling through and as a treat for my ducks when I get the catfish babies.

Instead of building my own boxes, I found a Rubbermaid heavy duty tool tote that is just over 25 gallons, roughly 30" x 20" x 16". They are rated to be able to hold 750 pounds without breaking. Filled with dry lava rock they weigh about 120 lbs. They also fit together very nicely and cost $12 at Home Depot. I got a bunch of those and built a wood table for them to sit on, over the 100 gallon tub so it saves space, they drain directly into the tank, and they provide shade for the catfish that will live their eventually.

Thanks for the info on water testing kits, I'll order that on Monday. I was wondering about getting a ph meter rather than using a testing kit for ph. The meter's are about $35 and you reuse them as often as you need. I grow a lot of blueberries, so I wouldn't mind having a nice way of testing ph whenever I want. Anyone using a ph meter they like a lot?

I'm not fond of pH meters because though you might think it is cheaper not to have to keep buying the test kit drops. It is even more costly to have to keep buying the calibration solutions, the buffer solutions and the storage solutions for the meter, oh and then the better meters you have to replace the probes regularly while the cheaper meters just need regular replacement when they go bad. I had a pH meter go belly up and cause me to way over acidify an entire tank of hydroponic solution before I realized the meter was not accurate even after re-calibrating. I now much prefer the test tubes and drops, not a huge cost after all and relatively easy to operate.

I generally prefer the drops as well, but does anyone know of a DO test that isn't an electronic meter?

You can get DO tests that are test tube and drops. I have one by Tetra, three different drops for the one test but it is pretty quick and easy, not like the nitrate test.