Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I made a screened washing platform with 2 x4's and 1/2' wire. It was the easiest/fastest way I could figure. Still a pain, but not too bad. Your lave rock is really small. Ours here is really too large- most well over an inch(30Mm?) Yours looks like >.5"- 15mm? Mush easier on your hands if it's smaller.

Another milestone!

Getting close :-)

Well done. Looks great. Just 3 to go :-)


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very cool thanks for sharing

So now that my filter is starting to grow I added 300mL humonia (pee) kindly donated by my kids last night.

First water test today! Woo hoo!

It may take a couple of days for the ammonia to show up so don't add too much. I overdosed a system once and it took ages to cycle


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Thanks Ben.

It's 300mL pee in a 1500L tank. When should I expect the ammonia to show up?

I also just added a whole bottle of Aqua One bio starter. It'll be interesting to see if it helps shorten my cycling time or if it was just a waste of money.

So here are the water test results from a "clean" sample before I added the humonia.

pH is high at around 8.2 - would adding a bag of shel grit to the tank in a mesh baggy help correct this?



As you would expect at this stage, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate were all 0ppm.

Shill grit wont have any effect at pH8.2, it raises pH, but needs acid to break it down, so it will just sit there for now, until the pH starts decreasing when NO2 and NO3 are formed, then it will have some buffering action- slowing the fall, (depending on how much you put in).
pH8.2 is fine for cycling, it may increase a bit more when the Ammonia forms from the breakdown of urea.

I had an issue cycling as my PH was over 8, and looking back, it may have killed off the bacteria (or slowed it down.)

I started adding acid to lower the Ph (hydrochloric I think). I had to add it slowly to not kill the fish, but if you have no fish, go for your life. You cannot kill anything. (within reason - only add the ratio).

My ph was very high because some of the scoria I got was crushed from old stones that were cemented in, so I had a lot of lime bringing up the Ph. It took a few months, but all the lime was neutralised eventually. If you have no fish, you can add more acid and therefore speed up the process.

Have you carried out a vinegar test? If you have lime in the scoria, your Ph will be high for a while.

Hey Continuum! Interesting thought so I went ahead and did a vinegar test.... No reaction.

Not even after letting the rocks sit for a few minutes. So we can rule out that theory.

Test your total alkalinity before you start just adding acid to lower pH. I had issues with high pH and after doing some research I found that by bringing my Total Alkalinity down to within 80-120ppm I was able to maintain a stable pH. Total alkalinity buffers your pH. Adjusting your pH without watching your TA can cause the pH to crash. High pH and high TA can be adjusted with acid, either vinegar or muriatic acid. Please Note that Muriatic acid(hydrocloric acid) is some nasty stuff, do not get it on you, do not breath in the fumes and keep it away from kids.

I wouldn't worry to much about your PH. I started my system with a PH similar to yours. It is my under standing that the Nitrifying bactieria prefer a higher PH anyway which will aid in cycling. A Quick google show a range of 7.3-8 is optimal (http://www.fishtanksandponds.co.uk/aqua ... teria.html).

I treat my top up water with hydrochloric acid to drop the PH to high 6's 24 hours before adding to the system. This will help slowly bring your PH down over the next couple of months along with the nitrifying bacteria doing there thing to bring it down as well.

What is the PH of your source water? Mine is around 8 out of the tap but goes up to around 8.2-8.4 after a day of off gassing.

Your scoria looks a lot cleaner than mine.

Mine may just have been a slow cycle and it was purely coincidence that the water tests were great after lowering the ph. I will never know.