Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Am I wrong or is the cycling complete?

I presume the ammonia reading is from the 'urea' dosing. This is being converted to nitrites and then the nitrates are growing as a result. Not sure if you need to dose anymore as you are producing nitrates for the plants, which is the aim. If you intent to add more fish shorty maybe, but otherwise I would cut back on the dosing to aviod unneccessary stress on the fish.

I recall that you said the pond had been set up for sometime, this would naturally cycle during the period with any decomposing matter in the water.

Have I missed something?




Haven't checked for a while but when I was setting up an aquarium recienctly the rainwater continually read 7.2 or there abouts in Ballarat.

Same here Asitis, SW corner.

Yeah, as Steve said, the first bunch of lovely bacteria seemed to be present, as it has been full and stocked with fish for while, just didn't have enough fish waste to trigger the nitrite spike needed for the second bunch of lovely bacteria! But that seems to have been solved with the addition of good old urea. As I said, if the nitrite registered higher today (which it did) I would cut back to half a ts or stop dosing all together until the nitrite hits zero (which I will ).

I'll have to add an 'urea amount' to the table



Damn! Where abouts are you! I'm right in the middle near the Queen/Victoria street intersection and I constantly get 6 (or below which my test doesn't show, but sometimes it's way lighter than 6).

Wow! thats what I need for the native rainbow's I've got, I'm in Lyons St Sth, it was around 7.2 (similar to our tap water) or higher caught from the rental roof I'm in about two months ago, haven't tested since.



Lazy me as usual, didn't read the whole story. If you back off on the dosing slightly you could difinately add some more fish. The Ballarat Golf Club currently has 5-10cm redfin in there dams, on dark with a net no dramas .

Ahh ok, well we're both relatively close to the CBD... interesting! Mines always been low in both tanks, someone said it might have something to do with the type of roof. Was you roof tile by any chance?



Yep, not going to dose again until the nitrite his zero, if at all! I should go out and grab some reddies this weekend then. I wanted to wait till the water goes clear before I get reddies... cause I wanna save my goldfish Pretty hard to catch what you can't see It's still a bit peasoup at the moment, but when I saw the goldies last they'd gotten pretty big and worth saving.

The main catchment for the bin is from an old fibre glass porch, very flat with heaps of lichen etc growing on it maybe this changes results.

The redfin at the golf club wouldn't be big enough to eat the goldie yet I would think, they where mostly 5cm or so, pretty young and easy to catch.

I stopped urea dosing last night, and the results from today show no ammonia (as expected) the nitrite's gone up and the nitrate's leveled off. I'll keep testing for the next few days, but looks like it might be a midnight run to the golf club



What are you up to this weekend Asitis? Want to go 'borrow' some redfin with me, need a good wingman on these type of 'missions' :p



Right! Yeah mate that might be it, I've got a colourbond roof, I can't remember what I heard, something about metal roofs lowering the pH and tiles being quite neutral? I suspect fibreglass would be pretty stable too, dunno mate!

I'll call my man on the inside, see what I can come up with, PM with details

Well 2 days after ceasing urea dosing my pH is back to normal (albeit a little high, but normal for me), nitrite had dropped further, and those wonderful nitrates are holding steady for the moment!

Today's test results may have been affected by 3 little visitors that decided to take full advantage of someone forgetting to put the barrier back up after he repotted the iris's into terracotta pots... Also the introduction of the terracotta pots themselves may have affected the results. But things are heading towards where I want them, but at this stage it looks like I should be adding more fish! Speaking of which...



OH IT IS ON!

I just retested the pH as I couldn't decide whether it was 7.4 or 7.8, so I used the low range test and it's actually 7.2! This must be the pH crash my uncle told me to watch out for! I've put some shell grit in the waterfall bit in an old pot, so hopefully that will buffer it a bit!

I was under the impression that the effects of adding shell grit was more basic than acidic, in that an aged system will naturally become more acid over time with the build up of tannins etc. For the native rainbow I have I was told to add wood to the system to lower PH, for chilids etc calcium.

Either way though the effects do buufer the swing, just raise the PH also.

Don't quote me, more experienced chemistry people will help out, maybe Steve

Nice duckpond [s]Duckpond[/s] Kenour.... quack, quack, quack.....

Your pH is fine at the moment Kenour.... leave it as is and just monitor over time... it's not really until you're around pH 6.5 that it's of any real concern IMHO...

Yeah mate, when the pH gets too low, it starts to dissolve the shell, this raises the pH to around 7.6 from memory, so adding the shell grit helps protect from the pH crash that comes when 'the free-floating single-cell algae get starved of nutrients' according to my very knowledgeable uncle!

Little bastards! I love this photo, I took it just before I booted them out!

I know the pH isn't too dire at the moment, but at this stage I think trying to improve the KH isn't too bad an idea I don't want the crash to take out my fishes! I want things nice and stable if I get new fishies this weekend

By the looks of the photos you have a viable food source already in your system, or should I say on it