Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi, I set up an IBC Tank with Carp two weeks ago, I am showing quite a lot of ammonia and Nitrite but no Nitrate is showing in the test water, hence my plants are going yellow.

I have a biomass filter on the front end of the growing tanks which I attempted to re-start with bacteria from an aquarium.

I am doing 25% water changes and keeping feeding lightly the fish, my PH is alcaline down to 5 which I keep adding additives to raise to 7.5

Am I right to assume this is a Nitrate issue with my bio filter?

Any natural ways of solving this, as I hate adding chemicals?

Any help appreciated

Still VERY early in the cycling process. Stop feeding to let the ammonia and nitrite drop. Salt up to prevent nitrite poisoning. Perhaps attach some growbeds to get some vegetables, and not have to do water changes.

You basically have two sets of bacteria required. One group converts Ammonia to Nitrite. The other group converts Nitrite to Nitrate. Right now you only have the first group established but not the group that converts Nitrite to Nitrate. Be patient they sometimes take longer to get established.

FYI - pH below 7 are considered acidic. Above 7 are alkaline.

What are you using to adjust the pH? With fish in the system avoid adjusting the pH more than .4 points at one time. You may not have much choice if your pH is going down that rapidly. Fortunately carp are pretty durable. Any idea why the pH keeps falling?

Salting for Nitrite issues - 1ppt (NaCl) = 1KG per 1000L or 1gm per L - use un-iodized salt without caking agents.

How about some test results. What are the water Temp, pH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate readings?

For the plants give a foliar feed of a balanced fertilizer to help them along until things get going (most fertilizers that are suitable for this will have instructions on the bottle - you'll only need a little).

Cheers