Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My first go at aquaponics both still cycling bout a month in have trout in one and perch in the other

Having never had trout myself but from what I read I think you will need tighter stronger netting to stop suicide trout.

Good luck, your a brave man running those fish before its cycled.

Nice work!...

How many fish do you have in each system?... Looking at the depth of gravel in those grow beds they could each probably safely sustain about 7 or 8 Silvers through to plate size of 500gm, and maybe 6 Trout max... It looks like you've got a few more than that in the pics.

Thanks guys not sure brace is the word if I get through the cycling I'll be happy

Is it usuall to start to see nitrates before your ammonia drops and without seeing nitrites?

You may want to test the water you're using to start the system - tap water, well water, whatever... sometimes that will have nitrates to begin with.

It's not usual but it is possible. You're still not cycled of course but you do have some of the ammonia and some of the nitrite oxidizing bacteria. Usually the latter group takes longer to get going so the nitrite stacks up before it can be processed. I still expect this to happen in your system although it's possible you missed the nitrite spike in your testing. FWIW, In a mature system you very rarely see any nitrite because this process happens pretty quickly - if you do see nitrites it often means something is wrong (your system hasn't completely cycled yet but even in a newly cycled system you might see a few hiccups early on)

Tested the water today and had a small spike in nitrites tank1 (trout) hoping this means the cycle is starting to happen. This aquaponics is so addictive!!!!

My ammonia has finally dropped Should i be concerned about my nitrite levels? Should i begin regular feeding again?

At 1.0ppm you should add plain sea salt at 1gm/Ltr.

At 2.0ppm you should start doing 30% water changes, ensuring additional salt is added into the system after each water change to account for the top-up water that went in.

I'm happy to say my water levels are all good PH may still be a little high but my ammonia and nitrite levels are 0 and I see my nitrates rise and fall regularly however my fish tank is developing an algae I'm hoping this is a good sort?? see pic


Feeding: My 12 trout seem to be bottomless pits I have just upped there feeds to 1 teaspoon in the morn and one in the arvo they are about 15cm is this enough or too much?? the feed size is 5mm.

My Perch in tank 2 still don't feed whist I'm around and sometime they take 24 hours to eat I'm thinking the water may be a little cold. water temp is 15 dec