Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That would be Tom's artistic flair. Truth be told, we're not much into straight lines though I hadn't considered otherwise for this project besides 45 & 90 degree bends. Tom is always the one to think outside the norm on these things.

It's been a while. The water has now been running in the system for about two weeks. We have used strictly rain water from our rain barrels and fresh rain.

On the 18th, I added a small amount of a mixture I had created several months ago for my plants (worm leachate, Alaska fish emulsion and kelp). I tested the next morning and had no readings so I added more. All told about 1 qt/1 l in the ~200 g /900 l of water in the system. When I again got 0 readings, I decided my test kit was too old and ordered a new one.

On the 21st I planted a lot of seeds in addition to the plants we had already added (3 citrus trees, 1 small bay tree, 2 broccoli, a bunch of strawberry plants and several rooted cuttings).

On the 23rd we broke down and added 10 small goldfish (feeders). We lost 5 to the pump which we have now added a screen on the intake to correct. And, this morning, the new test kit arrived.

pH: 7.2
Ammonia (NAT): 2.0
Nitrite: 2
Nitrate: 10
Water temp: 68F/20C

It appears the Ammonia is within the acceptable range. With the pH & temperature, we should be good to 3.2 NAT. I do know the water gets warmer as the day goes on to around 75F/24C in the late afternoon. That puts us a bit closer at 2.4 NAT but still okay.

My question is in regards to the nitrite. Are we okay to wait until we get more rain tomorrow or do I need to go get some dechlorinator and add tap water?

The fish seem to be active, moving throughout the tank and coming to the surface to eat.

I did add some shellgrit and eggshells this morning after testing hoping to get the pH to rise slightly - both for the ammonia factor and for better bacteria growth.

Any other thoughts...

How much are you feeding them HD, whilst the system is cycling it is best to keep the food to a minimum...especially with those nitrite readings.

Another possibility is that the fish could have died and then been sucked into the pump.

Shellgrit holds the pH at ~7 to 7.4, I would leave the pH alone and concentrate on getting through the cycling period as it is within acceptable levels.

Doing a water change would be good, but it should be okay to wait another day.

Salt will help in minimising stress from nitrite to the fish, 1-2ppt is sufficient
1ppt = 1kg of salt to 1,000litre = 1lb to 120gallons

So far they've only had duckweed, no other food. Should that be minimized as well?

Hi what's NAT mean?

Hmmm... should be TAN, not NAT. Its the total ammonia (NH3/NH4) and is actually what test kits test for. There are charts that provide what the "safe" level is for your fish based on pH and temperature. Steve did a great write-up here:
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... .php?t=133

I also found a more detailed chart somewhere but can't find it this morning.

And, in terms of food, I'm guessing that since duckweed is food, I should pull it from the tank. Thought about it after I went back to bed after my wee morning reading.

I'm stumped. Tested the water again last evening and my pH had fallen dramatically:

pH: 6.4
Ammonia: 1
Nitrite: 2
Nitrate: 5
Temp: 71F/22C

The only things I did were to remove most of the duckweed in the tank (wasn't a lot in there but limiting feed) and add the shellgrit.

This morning I verified the pH, thinking I had done something wrong last evening and it was still 6.4. We've had some rain water running in over night and I added tap water (dechlorinated) this morning. I'll test in a while, but what would make the pH drop that much in ~ 30 hours?

Hi HD
did you test the KH? (carbonate hardness)
If the buffering capacity has diminished that will cause the ph to crash in very short order.

No.. I'll have to get a test for that. Shouldn't the newly added shell grit increase buffering capacity though?

It should do, if its been in for a couple of days it may not be making a big difference as yet, especially as the bacteria are doing overtime with the cycling.

Unless something acidic has got into the water, its about the only thing i can think of that would cause a rapid drop in ph.

Fantastic effort you guys, that looks amazing. Just love what you have done! What is great is that there is more fun to come growing all the plants. Keep up the good work.

shows the pH is back up. Hex, I'm guessing you were right and that I added the shellgrit just in time. The crash happened before the shellgrit had a chance to go to work and now today its "up and running". That along with the addition of tap water and rain water has the pH back to 7.2. Others:

pH: 7.2
Ammonia: .5
Nitrite: 2
Nitrate: ~2.5
Temp: 60F/16C

So nitrite isn't moving but now with temp down, we'll just have to be patient. :hands wringing:

Faye, thanks! This is fun and definitely gives my type A personality something to focus on.

Curious; what is type A personality?

You know us Americans, we analyze everything. With personality testing, type A is the person who agonizes over everything, never stops, sometimes needs to control... I'm getting much better because I'm simply running out of steam as I age, but the tendencies are still there. So, with AP, its measure, test, wring hands, read... make myself a little nuts.

Aha, relax deep breath. go with the flow!