Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello we are starting a system for part of a school project, it will be a in-ground system. in order to get school approval for this system we need to prove we can handle our current small indoor one, however the current system has very high levels of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. we need to lower these before we show the school Admins our system. please give tips on how to lower all of these. by the way the current system is 3 months old.

Welcome to the forum.

We will need to know more information about the system to help you.

What info do you need? Let me know and I will get it to you ASAP!

What size are your growbeds? What size is your fish tank? How many fish and roughly what size?

What size pump? Is it constantly running or on a timer?

Is your system constant flood or flood and drain?

How old is your system? What are the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels?

Pictures also tell a thousand words.

Thank you I will get the info back to you ASAP probably tomorrow morning seeing as that is the closest time I can get into the building. thanks again.

Also, what feed are you using and how much per day.

Grow Bed size: 51" long by 2' .5" wide

Tank Size: Not entirely sure, it is a large Rubbermaid Feeding tub

Number of Fish/Size of fish: in the hundred and 70 range, they are roughly 3-4 inches long.

System Type: Floods then drains, to describe it better, The water flows from the main tub to a 55 gallon barrel containing a sump pump which pumps the water to the grow bed and then drains back into the main tub.

Ammonia Level: 8.0 PPM

Nitrites: 5.0 PPM

Nitrates: 100-120 PPM

Type of feed: Aqua Max at 3-4 handfuls per day.

System is 3 months old.


Thanks for all your help!

Theres you answer.

Extremely over stocked and the feed rate is too much for your GB to process. If you dont remove about 140 fish they will all inevitably die.

Charlie - Aquaponic Good Times, Happy Guy.....

He IS, however, absolutely correct...

Thank you for the advice. We have sorted out most of the issues with the other system. That system was larger than we were explaining, but your advice was very helpful! Thank you!

What is the recommended # of "gallons per fish" when figuring out how many fish to have? We are getting another tank that is 275 gallons.

It's not about the number of fish per gallons of fish tank.... it's about how much filtration you have available to process the wastes....