Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello everyone! My name is Austin, and I jumped head-first into aquaponics about 2 months ago. I did some research (and by "research" I mean the very scientific process of typing "how to build an aquaponics system" into Google and watching several hours worth of YouTube videos ). I made a design, went to HomeDepot 70,000 times, did some CraigsListing, and poof, I had an aquaponics system!

The bell siphon even worked the very first time. Not too shabby at all....

... until half the 4x4 wooden growbed legs sunk into the soft Oregon dirt causing a leaning-tower-of-Pisa effect until the approximately 1 ton grow bed came smashing to the ground. uhg.

Not to be discouraged, I consulted a engineer buddy of mine (okay, an engineering student at the university I go to) and he helped me design a much more stable support system for my grow bed. 20,000 more trips to HomeDepot and more gravel shoveling than I care to recall, and poof, I had an aquaponics system again!

I was so proud that I made a Youtube video for my Facebook friends (they think I'm some sort of expert on aquaponics now, lol. Little do they know how little I know). Anyway, I'm going to add a link to the Youtube video so you can see the system and get an idea of what I'm working with. Please forgive the laymen narrative in the video... the intended audience was a group of people that have never even heard of aquaponics:





Okay, that video was taken 14 days ago. Since then I've been trying to cycle my system. I couldn't find any clear liquid ammonia in my area (at least not any I felt I could trust), so I ordered 99% pure Ammonium Chloride powder from Amazon. I read in a bunch of places that it was okay to use this stuff for cycling, so I went with it.

So, here has been my experience trying to cycle this system. My brain hurts just thinking about it. Okay, here goes:

I saw on Youtube that I'm supposed to add ammonia slowly until it gets up to 5ppm, and keep track of how much ammonia that took (for me that was 3/4 of a tbsp of ammonium chloride powder). Then it says that you are supposed to keep adding that amount every day until nitrites appear, at which point you are supposed to cut back to half as much until the nitrates appear.

Bad idea. On the second day of cycling I followed the instructions and the ammonia level shot up to 10ppm. Way too high. No way I was going to keep adding 3/4 of a tablespoon every day. That would just increase the ppm of ammonia by 5ppm per day! I'm no chemist, but I know that can't be good.

So I scratched that advice and found another piece of advice on some webpage somewhere. It said to raise the ammonia level to 5ppm and then not do anything until the system has reduced the ammonia level to 0ppm all on it's lonesome. Then test for nitrites. If there aren't any, boost the ammonia to 5ppm again and repeat. Sounds reasonable to me.

So I left everything alone and about 8 or 9 days ago the ammonia level managed to drop itself down to about 4ppm. And it's been sitting at 4ppm ever since. Not a single nitrite. No more drop in ammonia level. Nothing. It's just hanging there. Is that normal? I cant imagine that it is. I have no idea what's going on.

I got bored, so I added some plants (starts that I bought at nursery). Most of them seem to be doing okay - but then again, I've never gardened before, so I don't actually know what "doing okay" looks like.

At first I just wanted tilapia. Now.... all I want is some nitrites.

Other info that might be useful to the pros:
PH: ranging between 6.8 and 7
TANK SIZE: 250 gallons
GROW BED SIZE: 10ft long x 3 feet wide x 1 foot deep
MEDIA: 3/4 clean gravel
CYCLE TIME: My system completes one flood & drain cycle in about 9 minutes and 30 seconds.
DATE I STARTED CYCLING: March 20th.

RANDOM THINGS I'VE ADDED TO THE WATER IN A DESPERATENESS ATTEMPT TO MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN: 1 liter bottle of liquefied seaweed (I read somewhere that this stuff was good for the plants and okay to use before adding tilapia), 1 teaspoon of spiralina powder (I don't actually know why I thought that would do anything).

First what are your water temps, second how fast is it flooding and draining (ok I watched the video).Third a little patience or some water from a cycled system might help.
And get rid of or cover the clear pipe (algae). Never heard of anyone cycling with ammonium chloride before.

Nice System. It is very clean in its design. I am currently cycling my new system too. Mine stalled out for 2 weeks when temps went into the 30s and 40s. Even with the tank [the sump in my case] in ground, flood and drain systems even out to air temp very quickly. My daily temp reading proved this. Now that it is consistently above 60F things are progressing faster. It may also help to cycle faster if you take out the bell siphon and run it in constant flood until it is done cycling. This is also what I am doing, and it seems to be helping. Just ensure ample aeration and good DO levels if your beds are planted [mine are], roots need 02 as well. Hope this helps.

J.B.

Hello,
Nice system. I too just put one together. Mine is a 3ft x 6ft x 1ft deep. It sits on a 300 gallon 3ft x 8ft x 2ft deep galvanized stock tank . I added most of my gravel today( didn't have enough) but went ahead and tried cycling just to check timing. I think my bell and syphon are too small (1 in pipe and 2 in bell) b/c my syphon wont break if I have my pump flowing fast enough to fill in 12 minutes. Looked to me like you have a 2 in pipe and a larger bell. Could you confirm those pipe sizes please. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have to remove the rock from around mine and redrill for 2 in pipe and then recaulk .

a big system may take over a month to cycle.

best advice is just be patient, it wont happen overnight, but it will happen.

I would say any system would take at least that long. Mine is really small and it took about a month to finally start showing nitrate levels.

Because the system is running really close to pH 7, it might take awhile for the nitrites to show. A pH of 8 is better for the initial cycle, but don't go raising your pH. Just give it time. If you have no fish in the system yet, just let it run for a couple of days and then take some tests. Repeat until you start getting results. Personally I would have just pissed in the system (pee ponics ) instead of buying stuff.

I recommend every time you think of doing something to hurry up the cycling go have a cup of coffee. Should you still wish to tinker have another cup.

Eventually you will either stop wanting to tinker or have to go the the loo. If after having gone to the loo you still wish to tinker have another cup.

As gazza said, be patient.

Thanks for the replies, and sorry for the long delay. Your posts got me thinking and researching and remaking things. Since I've last posted here's what I've done:
-Added a water conditioner (turns out that where I live, Portland Oregon, they put not only chlorine in the water, but chloramine. Its toxic to aquatic life, so I had to fix that)
-Added a serious air pump (one meant for a pond) and airstone.
-Added a 500W aquarium heater to warm the water above 60 deg F so the bacteria will have a chance. I only plan to use it until later in the spring.
-Got a thermometer so I can actually check the water temp (yes, I'm *that* much of a n00b that I didn't even realize I had to do that)
-I added Stress+Zyme (some sort of biofilter bacteria stuff from the fish store).

And now guess what? I have some nitrites!

As for the pipe dimensions, I use a 1" pipe coming in, a 2" standpipe, a 4" bell and a 6" gravel guard. I would have used an 8" gravel gaurd but I couldn't find one. According to some Hawaiian aquaponics place, they say use the "double double double" rue: Stand pipe should be double the width of the input pipe. Bell should be double the width of the standpipe. Gravel Gaurd should be double the width of the bell.

Here's a link to that double double double info: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/BIO-10.pdf

I don't know any physics, so I can't confirm any of that. But I do know that I followed the sizing advice and I haven't had any problems. In the link above, they use some extra airtube-thing in the construction of their bell. You can see it coming out of the top of thier bell. I think it's meant to help break the siphon when the water gets to the bottom. I didnt' do any of that. I just put a cap on the top of a 4" pipe, cut some 1.5" teeth on the bottom of it and called it a day. It's worked fine.

I am so excited to have nitrites. I just saw the purple test tube a few minutes ago. I came on to say thanks for all the useful advice.

Now I'm just going to sit on my hands and not touch anything until it's fully cycled.

Hi Austin,

Great job on your system!

Considering what's going on with cycling, I would put a clear polyethylene cover on the growbed to warm the water and keep the rain out of the tank so you cycle faster.

I would consider making the hoops higher before covering them (I'm thinking you'll wind up doing this by Fall anyway, and this way you won't need to redo the plastic film). Just covering the bed will get your water into the 60's I think. My water temp high was 58 F today with system half in and half out of a greenhouse (about 1000 gallons of water)(I think your temps will be higher with the cover and you won't need the heater).

Hope this make sense. Cheers.

Patience. The worst thing you can do once your ammonia starts dropping is add more. If it goes to 0 and you have no nitrites, sure but otherwise get it to 4-5 ppm and then leave it until you get nitrates. No really, I mean it don't do anything else just wait.

Then when you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and whatever nitrates, add fish.

If you're at 10ppm I'd do a water change. That high an ammonia reading will be slowing down your cycling.

Awesome advice Scotty! Covering the bed... why didn't I think of that? tcshad, I'm just sitting on my hands now. I'm really a tinkering kind a guy and it's taking everything I've got not to go mess with stuff. But I'm being patient and not adding anything.

I'm a tad concerned about my pH level though. It started out at 7 and now -- after the nitrites and nitrates have shown up -- it's started dropping every day. It's down to 6.4 now. Should I worry about that?

I'm thinking about adding a half a teaspoon of food grade potassium hydroxide to bring the pH up a tad.... but I don't know if that's just me wanting to tinker again. My ammonia is at 0.75ppm, Nitrite is at about 5ppm, Nitrates are somewhere between 20 and 30, and the average temp is up to about 65 deg F. It all looks good to me (except the pH of 6.4).

boosting the ph is fine, just do it very very slowly. The nitrogen cycle is acidic so you'll need to add some kind of buffer like shell grit to the system to maintain your ph and prevent nutrient lockout. Ironically my ph has not dropped below 8 since I started my system 6+ months ago. Not sure why.