Backyard Aquaponics
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I can't say I've seen a system yet with 0 ammonia


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Mine reads that most of the time but I've got low stocking levels. TCL is talking ideal levels here - what you want is zero but that's not always what you're going to get. If you just have a trace that's typically not a huge problem but it depends on the Temperature and pH. pH and Temp affect what form the Ammonia is in.

So you need to determine whether the Ammonia present is in the unionized or ionized state. The Total Ammonia Nitrogen table in the IBC's of Aquaponics short cuts this for you so you don't have to do the calculations. It tells you if the TAN your kit is reading is toxic to your fish. Here's the chart (it's also on the BYAP website) - http://ibcofaquaponics.com/information/tables-and-charts/

The toxicity becomes greatest at high temp and high pH.

Check out the effects of Ammonia - Here's a research paper looking at Ammonia levels and Tilapia growth rates (among other things) - https://ag.arizona.edu/azaqua/ista/ISTA8/mohamedshreif12.pdf

Mind you they are talking about the toxic form of ammonia.

Hope this helps

My greenhouse system has zero ammonia. But the fish are small and the plants are big. I started this system in summer and it cycled in 2 weeks or less. Strong bacteria. The PH is higher than my other system which sits at about .05 during the trout season and has less water and growbeds.

Haven't tried the greenhouse system with trout yet.

With the amount of water and fish you have you should be expanding growbeds not fish stocking. IMO

If you can catch water as it is exiting the grow beds to test that for ammonia, you may find that the ammonia levels there are 0-trace while the ammonia level in the fish tank might be a bit higher like .25 ppm. In which case there might be enough filtration for your current amount of fish but you might not be circulating enough water through the fish tank to keep the ammonia level in the fish tank from showing higher.
I would still personally probably not recommend increasing the fish load if you are able to measure ammonia in the system since to me measuring ammonia means that your are pushing things a bit beyond your systems ability to convert the ammonia.

In a system with a very robust bio-filter and enough circulation, I have been able to experience over stocking of the fish or Gross over feeding episodes that are able to increase the nitrate levels in the system without noticing an elevation in ammonia or nitrite.
However, if your system is just barely balanced as it is (only enough bio-filter to just barely keep up), then you might experience low to nil Nitrates but if you increase feed you will see elevated ammonia or nitrite levels.
To test this, you might increase your feed or the protein level of your feed for a couple days and see what goes up. If your ammonia level goes up due to increasing the feed, then you know your system really can't handle more fish yet and you need to expand your bio-filtration and/or circulation before you can increase your fish stocking or feed rate.

If you increase your feed rate for a week or so and the ammonia stays exactly the same (or hopefully you can get it to go down but the truth is a new system might hang onto a small trace or residual ammonia level for most of it's first year of operation) then maybe your system is prepared to handle a heavier fish load. BUT remember that your fish are growing, YOU SHOULD NOT STOCK MORE FISH THAN THE SYSTEM CAN GROW OUT TO FULL SIZE. I would generally recommend you feed small fish a higher protein feed if you think you are not getting enough nitrate out of them rather than stocking more fish than the system can safely grow out.

I do not believe in putting in more fish because you figure some will die off. What that usually causes is a major water quality issue that can actually kill off your entire tank full of fish so you wind up with none instead of the right number to grow out.

Cool vid, water quality is great and looking busy in there mate.

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