Hello from Long Island New York

ABStevey

TCLynx wrote:

Look into fishless cycling if you want to get cycled up quickly once you are set up. Just a few small goldfish will take a long time to cycle up a large system and if you put a large number of fish into a new system you get all the stress of trying to keep them alive through the ammonia and nitrite spikes which usually means some water changes that actually slow the process a bit. (I managed to cycle my big system in only a few weeks while cycling with fish often takes 6 weeks or more.)

If you know anyone with an ornamental pond in your area, offer to buy them a new filter pad so you can take the old gunky one to wash into your grow beds as you fill them. Or maybe they will just give you a bucket of pond water.

Aquarium filter squeezings can also help jump start the cycling process.

Ok, the good news is I do have access to a fairly large ornamental Koi pond. My father in law has 9 very large Koi, and they spawned last year and about 40-45 of the fry survived. They are probably 3-5" in length by now. I will definitely use the pond water and the filter pad to jump start my AP system. I was even considering using some of the baby Koi in the FT.

I guess I will have to do a little more research of fishless cycling... I "assumed" that I would be able to cycle up quicker with a few fish in the system. I hate it when I do that... :oops:

hydrophilia

If you have the filter gunk you don't need to do fishless cycling: you'll be cycled in a week or less. Just keep an eye on the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates to be sure.

ABStevey

Ahhh! One week is better than 4-6 weeks.

Thanks hydrophilia...

ABStevey

Just got a major score. 3 IBC tanks for free :headbang:

Saves me the cash I was gonna lay out for the new water storage tanks I was looking at earlier in this thread. Don't you just love it when you get free stuff? Just in case you were wondering, they used to hold molasses, but will be cleaned before I pick them up. I'm sure I'll have to do some further sanitizing, but it's no sweat...

Dave Donley

KudaPucat

*AP Envy*
Well done.

Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello from Long Island New York

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics