Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Kenny, I posted on the gorwbed thread, but please keep me informed regarding how your growbeds bow under the pressure of the scoria.

Yeah mate, I've been keeping and eye on that, the one that's been full for a week is fine still, as they bow inwards initially, the addition of the scoria has just caused it to square up. But I could see how the use of gravel would cause it to bow, as it's heaps heavier than scoria, but so far so good!

Well the gb's are full, which is a good start, the pH has sorta come down to a nice range, but still no ammonia spike... So I'm thinking of whacking some pure urea balls in there, my old man works at Huntsman Chemicals and gets his hands on all sorts of good stuffs!

Hopefully the goldies survive the dosing! I was thinking of sprinkling the urea balls straight in the gb's and just seeing what happens? I just don't wanna find floaters though, the goldies I got 2 month's ago are pretty big now and... they're my friends

Patience Kenour... patience.... it's only been a day

hehe, I've had the end bed cycling for 10 days now! I WANT RESULTS!

Kenny my system with goldies in it required 2 things to show results. A month to show any nitrates at all, AND for me to remove most of the duckweed (was sucking out the nitrates.
When I put my perch in, I didn't see any ammonia at all (3 weeks full load) until the overfeeding disaster. now Ammonia always registers a little bit consistently.
You just have to be patient.

I just checked my list of virtues and it's not on there

I'm going fishing this weekend to try and nab some redfin, I think I'll just chuck 5/10 big buggers in there to help things along! 10 goldies in 4000 litres might not be enough to kick start things! Plus I have the Iris's in there, so they might be stealing nitrates like your duckweed was! I've had the fish in this water for 2 months now...

Think others have found this to be the case Kenour.... I'd put them aside for a while until things are rocking....

Duckweed was stealing my ammonia from my nitrosomonas... This really upset me! :-)

I've got a mate who likes to say "Doctors have patients, Would you trust me to cut you open?"

Kenour- there is a difference between cycling and cycled.
Cycling is water filling and emptying.
Cycled, is an established N N A etc balance.
Only after spikes of each ( for want of a better word) will a balance begin to happen.
In reality fish and plants need to be in the system before true cycling can be detected. IMHO
C1

lol, trying to find the post where it's indicated I don't understand the distinction



Shouldn't that be: 'before you can detect the system has cycled' There is a difference you know!

I've got a pretty good grasp of all the concepts, just haven't done anything on this scale! I think whacking some bigger fish in there should aid in getting the system cycled, and hopefully being Redfin they'll survive the spikes! But if not, they'll goto BBQ heaven

I've got seedlings almost ready to go in (bit optomisting I know!), that's why I'm a bit keen on getting things going! The system has only been cycling through all the growbeds since Sunday, spose I'll just have to chill out and test test test

Careful red fin are fussy eaters [ask jim]

lol more confusion. the only time I use cycling and cycled are in relation to the nitrogen cycle.

ken, how many litres was you tank again, and how many goldies do you have? how many times per day are you feeding them and how much.

what were the goldies in (with what connected) for that time? did you seed your beds / pond at all from anywhere?

answer me those and i'll give you a direction to go in

Yeah mate Things get lost in translation!



4000lt and 10 itty bitty goldies!



They were thrown straight into the main tank/pond. Pump was circulating and aerating the water until I connected the first bed 11 days ago, with the other 3 connected on Sunday. Didn't seed anything



Well... OK then!

you need to cycle up before the weather cools down so you can get the trout going............

i recon seed your beds, go visit helpful AP people around the area or anyone with home aquariums even both! swap a few litres of gravel with the AP'er and collest some festy looking crap from anyone with a healthy aquarium.

You're going trout, yes?

i'd be inclined to try your urea dosing or "other" methods. see TClynx's thread, i think she's fully cycled in around 2 or so weeks? and i'd bet her system will now support a huge bio load.

OR if you are patient, you can go and pick up the fish in small batches (5 every couple of weeks) and monitor water quality strictly.

I'm an impatient type looking for shortcuts that work.

If you're going to artificially cycle via urea or liquid gold then i'd probably take the goldies out and put them in a couple of hundred litre aquarium. but then again, they're not going to co-habit with the trout, just as BK

Some one else here has successfuly used urea too although it may take a few days for the ammonia to register, so dont over do it.

If you go the "other" method, do read through tcl's thread.

sounds like trout are going to have a good following this year

Let the trout off begin!