Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Nitrite - 5>
Nitrate - 40

Im a bit worried about this. Should i be?

Here comes the bugs. There is only bugs on 1 plant, others dont seem to be affected.

Anyone know what these black things are and how to kill/get rid of it?



I killed the blueish caterpillar (yabbie/silver food).

yep . whats your ammonia?? lloks like the rates are up and rites are down so it is cycling\but still dont feed

Ammonia dropped from 2 to 0.5 over night. Opps fed them a bit today

it is cycling, but dont feed till nitrite is 0. even then it will take time to build some bacteria up do you can fully feed, about 3 months

ouch ok

Water temp is 29 degrees, have a ice block in the freezer to try to help it.

Is there a max temp i should watch out for?

Silver Perch will be fine... yabbies are probably stressing....

Problem is more related to ammonia and pH at temperature...



And your nitrites being 5+.... don't feed!!!

Thanks for the graph Rupert

Wont feed i promise!

Ammonia - 0.5
Nitrite - 5+
Nitrate 0-5 (why such a massive drop from 40 yesterday )
Ph - 7.4

System is starting to work

Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 5+
Nitrate 0-5
Ph - 7.4

Should i take steps to lower nitrite?

Stupid yabbies why dont they just go eat themselves

Hmm, yabbies don't usually catch healthy fish. They might be sick, or even dying and then the yabbies are eating them.

You might want to do a partial water change. The nitrites will slowly wear on your fish and make them sick. 5+ is OK for a short while but after several days can cause problems.

Check to see if you are testing nitrates properly. easiest one to improperly test.

Hmmm ok. The gold fish i can understand as i chuck a few in so it could have died due to stress (i didnt have any where else to put them lol).

The silver though i found in a yabbie "cave".

Is this normal as my system doesnt seem to be fully cycled or should i do the water change (maybe 30%)? The Nitrite levels seem to be stable at 5+ so im guessing im doing the tests fine.

nitrAte test is easy to do incorrectly. Might account for the drop in nitrAtes.

High nitrites can be a common issue in newly cycling systems. If they get too high for too long your fish will get sick and can die. Believe me I've been there. anything above 2 can potentially cause problems, just depends how long they are at that level.

start with a 20% change.