Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

yeah I think that is the way to go, the non-logical part of me wants the extra fish so I just need to keep that in check.

With regards to cycling new growbeds into an existing system how do you test/monitor that? Would you still monitor for nitrite spike followed by increased nitrate. My guess is this wouldn't occur as there would be no increase in ammonia, so its not really going to be a testable/verifiable cycling operation.

You cannot monitor the cycling of the new GBs in the existing system per se. You just need to give the bacteria time settle into the new real-estate and multiply.

If you did very frequent monitoring, you'd notice the ammonia now takes 'x0' and the nitrites 'y0' time periods to drop to zero following an ammonia source being added/created (fish etc) and eventually as the new GBs establish there will be a lot more bacteria so the time for the ammonia to drop will be 'x1' and the nitrates 'y1', where x1<x0 and y1<y0, i.e. it will happen faster because there more bacteria. (assuming all other factors remain the same).

Patience is a virtue.

You can however start planting out as soon as you like, in fact I'd recommended it. If the plants aren't receiving enough nutrient from the AP activity, you can always supplement with a little Seasol.