Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have two little girls who love to graze in the veggie garden so I'm going to plant things that don't have to be cooked to be eaten...

Capsicum
Cucumber
Strawberries
Beans

And then if I have space some broccoli, lettuce and mustard greens for me.

Black taps were bought on eBay. here

Well knock me down and colour me orange....

Look at today's test results!





It would appear that we have managed to cycle our system in FOUR DAYS.

I'm not going to rush out and buy fish just yet - but I'll definitely be planting some veggies this weekend and I'm going to have a quiet wine tonight to celebrate.

I'm guessing it would be wise to wait for a week or so and see if we can maintain steady levels of everything before even thinking of buying fish?

We also need to build the hoop house over the system this weekend to shelter it a bit and protect it from the worst of the rainy deluges we tend to get in our area.

But Aqua One BioStarter - not just a waste of money after all.

Ummmm, not yet, you aren't fully cycled until you can add ammonia equivalent to what the fish will add in a day, and not produce any ammonia or nitrite spike. Patience is required!

What is your Ammonia at now?

Ammonia is hovering at 0.5 -1ppm

Should I keep adding pee? Do I half the amount I add now that nitrification has been established?

I don't want to overwhelm the bacteria

Ammonia reading from this afternoon:



pH appears to have raised again from around 7.8 yesterday to 8 today

Looks like about 0.5ppm+ Ammonia (? I find it never quite looks the same in a phone photo as in real life), you could increase it a bit, I peaked at about 1ppm with my small system, which took 6 weeks to cycle in winter, when things happen more slowly. Many go much higher than that, but it isn't necessary.
If you maintain it around 1ppm, you'll notice one day that it has suddenly decreased, but you'll still have nitrites, and a week or so later, nitrites will rapidly drop too, by which time you are pretty much there. Drop in a decent dose of ammonia (use a few days aged pee so you have ammonia, rather than urea, which takes a few days to break down), and monitor your levels to see if the bacteria can handle it without a spike in ammonia or nitrites. If you dont get spikes, you're done!
I wouldn't put fish in with your current level of nitrites .

Don't worry about a few tenths of variation in pH.

Ok great. I'll go throw some more pee in to try get it to 1ppm. I haven't been aging it at all so I'll just keep continuing on as I have been doing.

Like I said, not going to run out and buy fish just yet but I will plant some plants this weekend.

Thanks for all the information - I'll watch my nitrite level closely.

Keep pushing 1-2ppm amm, you should see your nitrites peak deep purple for a bit and then slowly slip down as nitrates deepen in red, when all subside to 0 you are pretty much cycled. But when introducing fish you still need to take care within the first few months.

Thanks Charlie! Would you start off with just a handful of fish once nitrites disappear?

I guess I'll have to be extra careful as I am hoping to get the 2nd 1500L FT (FT #1) filled and circulating by next week - all that water is going to extremely dilute things.

How do I avoid starving my bacteria when I connect the 2nd FT? Should I double the pee added for a little while as I carefully monitor ammonia levels?

I always advise starting new systems with 6 goldfish and when they survive after a week add your fish just leave the goldies in
Once you start feeding you will need to keep an eye on ammonia
Theres no issues with adding the second tank the bacteria will soon catch up

Ok so test results from today:

pH is 8

Ammonia is about 1ppm still (Did not add any humonia yesterday)
Nitrites are around 5ppm
Nitrates are getting up there to about 40ppm




I found some scraps of geotextile fabric and after reading that people use this to construct wicking beds I thought it would make an excellent filter material to try and remove some of the red dust from our system:

Wrapped over the ft outlets into the grow beds:


Bundled up and stuffed into sock covering the pump outlet into the FT

Nice might have to try that out. looks better then the quilt batting I have been using.

I didn't worry about any additional filtering after washing my scoria. And the water never went red. Should be interesting how much you actually trap in the fabric.

You could probably plant now, before the nitrates build up and you get the dreaded algae bloom :-)

Your scoria must have been heaps cleaner than mine! Even though I rinsed every bit of scoria that went into my growbeds we still have a lot of fine red silt on everything. And you used to be able to see down to the bottom of the fish tank - now you can only see a few inches down.

The geotextile fabric is catching a lot of it though. I had to reposition the cloth to a "clean" section today as I didn't want the trapped silt to get washed out of the fabric.

Took the plunge last night and drilled the holes for the window.... Eeeep!



I basically followed to the letter what this guy did, since he and I bought the same window kit:




Which necessitated me climbing into the tank through one of the teeny holes I cut at the top. Getting in = easy. Getting out = nearly impossible and we nearly had to call the fire brigade!

I just do not have the upper body strength to lift myself out of a hole that's head height. Especially with sore arms from shoveling gravel and strength training at cross fit. (Ahhh the irony)

Hubby eventually managed to drag me out but not without dragging me across several sharp edges and today my skin is every shade of the rainbow. DREADING getting back in there to silicone and bolt the window - I'm hoping to rig up a sort of rope ladder that might make things less painful.

Still, the holes got drilled using the window itself as the template.

I sanded all the burrs away today and cleaned the area with water and soap then water again.

So we are all ready for silicon and bolting tomorrow.





Other achievement today was bagging 200 bio balls and throwing them in the sump tanks.

The bags are tied together so that they can all be fished out together if needed. I figured it wouldn't hurt to give the water a little extra polish before it goes back to the FT.