Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello All! Very new to AP. I'm a woodwork lobby guy in Colorado, so, of course, I started with building an 8x11x11high greenhouse which is now home to an IBC 220 gallon fish tank, sump tank and three growbeds with approximately 40 square feet of grow space. I followed the chop2 design with 6 inches river rock covered by 6 inches of hydro ton pebbles. I need help cycling this garden. Using an API kit. Started with about 50 1 inch goldfish about five weeks ago. They're all in fish heaven at this point I think because I added two capfuls of ammonia daily to help get the bacteria going and generate nitrates. I have tomatoe plants and herbs planted for five weeks now. They're doing ok but look stressed to me. So I recently dumped about half of the water and am beginning to try fish less cycling and adding two caps of ammonia daily. My API readings now look around 0ppm to .25ppm at the 7 day point. Cycling is more difficult then I thought. I could use some help. Thanks for reading this and hope to hear from you. For now; fish less in Colorado!!!

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Howzit

Busy doing my cycling. I used pee as I was unable to source ammonia.

Pee in bottle. Left it for a day. Dumped in the tank. Peed in a bottle left it for another two days and dumped it in the tank.

Waited a week and tested. Saw ammonia
Waited 6 days saw nitrites.
Waited 4 days saw nitrite spike, low ammonia and some nitrates.

Check out http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6809

Fishless cycling is very simple...

(a). Add an Ammonia source to somewhere between 1.0 - 2.0ppm, then don't add any more.
(b). Go fishing for a couple of weeks.
(c). Watch for the Ammonia to drop to 0.0 and the Nitrite to appear, spike and also drop to 0.0ppm.

Then your system is cycled!

If the time span between the Amm and Nitrite both dropping to 0.0ppm exceeds a week, then add a little extra Amm (not much) to keep the Nitrosomonas happy.

As far as Ammonia sources are concerned, I would suggest using a combination Seaweed/Fish hydrolysate product. Here in Oz Seasol Powerfeed (not standard Seasol) fills this role beautifully. In the U.S. you could use Maxicrop, from what I understand it is only seaweed extract, like our standard Seasol, but it has higher Ammonia content than our standard Seasol

I always cycle my aquariums with a piece of raw shrimp. Just toss it in there inside of a mesh bag on a string for easy removal once my readings are steady. I've never personally seen an aquarium cycle in less than 4-6 weeks, but perhaps the added surface area from the growing medium speeds things along in an aquaponics setup.

Looking forward to finding out myself in the next few weeks as I set up my first system.

Good luck on yours!