Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hi Trevi,

Thanks a lot for your valuable advice. Will get a few gold fishes or koi maybe for the cycling. By the way can I start planting veges while the system is still cycling. I mean if I add some seasol from the begining.

ty

Yes you can start planting as soon as you start pumping water through your system. Get your Api test kit and start testing. You really do not need any fish at all till it is cycled. Your system will cycle. You can add a bit of pure ammonia to help start if you do not have any start from another system. You can clean an aquarium filter in the system to start it also.
You need to find out if your water supply has chlorine or cloramines in it. Both will kill fish. Chlorine is easy to remove, just let some water set aside in an open container for a day or two. Cloramines is another story. It takes about 3 or 4 weeks to clear out of the water. If you have cloramines you will need a different water source like rain water collection. Search the forum if you have questions.

hi Don,

Thanks a lot for your guidance. You remind me that I can get the nitrogen bacterias from the filter of my existing small pond. Will put a couple pieces of the filter materia in the grow bed. My question is if without fish, how do i test the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate level? Since I will be using tap water (+ some rain water) so I assume there will be no Cloramines in it.

ty

If you want to fishless cycle you can add a ammonia source(humonia etc)

Otherwise the poop that your gold fish gift to you will be the source.

Thanks Zman. Good to know that human pee can be used as the source of ammonia for cycling a system. Should I add the fresh urine directly into the fish tank or should I retain it in a container for some time before use? and how much should I add? My tank is about 1500L.

Either/or... if you add it directly there will be a lag time... usually a couple of days... before it turns into, and registers as ammonia....

Whereas aging it for a few days.. will basically be adding ammonia... and can be accurately monitored accordingly...

Thanks Ruperto. Understand now.

Being in Taiwan you should have access to the piss jars haha

yes it's vefy common in the old days. In the country homes normally it's a big wooden barrel as the urine would be used to fertilize the vegies whilst in the cities, it's a small cute ones. I wish I had one now. Attached a few pic for your interesting. Remember in the army our base was in a tiny isolated island between Taiwan and China. Every early morning, the villagers there would empty the jars in a bay where we go fishing big black seabreams.

Tested the water one day after fishless cycling:

PH=8.0, NO2=0, NO3=2.0, NH3/NH4=0.

Don't know why there is a small amount of NO3? could be something in the gravels I am using which is river gravel collected on the seashore? Anyone has a hint for me. Thanks.

have you planted anything yet?
I was getting false positive nitrates initially because I planted some seedlings which probably had some fertilizer stuck in their roots

How can you have river gravel by the sea shore?

hi Gorotsuki,

No I have not planted anything yet. If it's not a false reading then the suspect must be the gravel I'm using. By the way I see there is mud like substance in the gravel. Maybe there is fertilizer contained therein.

ty

Zman, good question. Because the gravel was collected near the estuary of a river and I suppose they were originally coming from the river. Since I don't have a refractometer yet, I don't know if the gravel would contain excessive salt.

Measured the siphon cycle today. It takes 45 minutes to flood and 7 minutes to drain. Is this considered good/bad for the plant? Is there a golden rule about the flood/drain interval? Thanks.