Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

my fist system is cycling up and a major problem i am having is that i keep having algae growing all over the sides of my tanks.
now i realised today that i had several spots in my growbeds where the water was not covered by rocks and that was causing little algae puddles. would that account for the massive amount of algae in the FT? also i have lots of plants growing already in the GB but the nitrate levels are still way high, even after i did a 1/2 water change today. the same is true for my nitrite levels. the ammonia is being reduced in about a day of so when i dose so i stopped adding ammonia until the other levels come down. i still havent added fish so they aer safe for now.

also would adding a heater to the tank cause a spike in the algae growth? the tank i s shaded from the sun.

thanks again for eveyones help, this is really fun.

a;gae on the sides of the ft isnt a problem (unless its a jungle) some fish species will actually eat it.
pile more media over the algae inthe gb, or drop the ater level. algae in the GB is not desirable

what fish are you goint to put into it? can we have some stats on the system? your nitrate levels may be a result of too must hummonia, or not enough plants

Well it takes about a good 6 weeks to cycle a system. So if you have not add fish yet, sit on your hands, take a holiday or something. The more you mess with the system with water changes, etc, the longer your cycling process will take.

Algae on tank walls is normal. AP is a natural system.

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Algae will always grow where water comes into contact with sunlight ....as with algae clumps being a problem where the water discharges into the GB I dont see a problem with that, I have a mossey sort of algae in a few GB's and you tend to find that is a great worm home and solid collector/filter....It stays moist for the worms but is above the water level so they dont get flooded...If it starts getting too big just cull it a bit But i use it for the worms... and after all i hasnt hampered any of my other plants growths Have a look at the strung up Tomatos near the bottom of the page and that GB has the above thing happening water just dumped in 1 spot and algae underneath it viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4370&start=75
Any way every system is different....

i will only be using goldfish in my system nothing to eat. the water is in 4 -18gal tanks.
i have plenty of plants growing so i guess i just need to wait longer.

good to hear that a thin film of algae is ok, and that is all it really was a film.

Thin film of algae is good. Shade the tanks if you want to reduce the algae in them.

Add more media where your algae puddles are forming and relax. Changing out water is actually not a good thing when trying to battle algae. Let the algae you shade out die in the grow beds and decompose and it will help inhibit algae to some extent but a thin coating of surface algae on any wet surface getting sun is normal and should not be worried about.

Hi, I just want to add my experience in case it might help someone. Here is my step by step construction of my Aquaponics system.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200866680681829.1073741848.1008811009&type=3

I designed this simple system to fit in the backyard and not look ugly. when I get the funds I would like to decorate it with faux stones.

Anyway I had a horrible algae problem. I was changing much of the water every week and getting nowhere. So I stopped feeding the fish for a few days and I put a shade to block the sun from the system. After two weeks and more changing of the water, VOILA! It looks drinkable.

I also made a simple swish filter.

Over here we have power outages often so I hooked up a separate aerator to a a/c converter and to a battery. Now , if the system shuts down when I am away, the aerator keeps going.

It's been about ten months now and my fish are not fully grown. I don't know if it's because I have too many or just that they need more time.

As for the vegetables, they grow fine if you like all this Filipino stuff. I am in negotiations with the wife to get some of my stuff in there.