Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We are having another bout of cold weather, which I think is driving up my nitrite readings. Others have warned me, and it makes sense. Either the bacteria has stopped processing the nitrite/amonia, or the fish have stopped eating/pooing, which of the two, my vote is for the first. In my case, I still owe the tank another 100 gallons, which I will add tomorrow, which should dilute it down enough, hopefully getting me through to when the weather breaks, at which point I will need to swap out some water to dilute it further. Are there any other options for dealing with the nitrites? Since ours will be a year-round system, I suppose it is possible that an extremely cold spell could affect the tank temp enough to stop "production" at which point adding water could make the temp problem worse, unless I store some warm water just in case. If that is my only option, then okay, just wondering if there are others with a similar problem.

By the way, the weather hasn't affected the plants much. The onions grew 1-2 inches over the last few days, and the lettuce continues to go to town. I even have some raddishes sprouting after being sowed rather than sprouted inside and transplanted. A small amount of cotton did the trick just fine, as the seeds stayed put. Will be planting the carrot seeds on the next warm day. The broccoli seems to be struggling a bit, when compared to it's cohorts in the dirt garden.

Hey BB&CC,
Since the system is just getting broken in I would control nitrite spikes by reducing feeding. With the cold temps the bacteria aren't going to be processing well anyway; there is going to be a big slowdown in activity during the Winter as long as the system is driven by ambient temps. Don't kill the fish trying to keep the young plants going.

And the fish don't/won't eat as much anyway...

Temperature seems to be very important to the Nitrite/Nitrate conversion. It also seems to be the more difficult spike to get past. When your water temps come up things should get going again. As said before, reducing feeding is a good idea.

Diluting or adding water will help but as you realize, warm water will help more than icy water. If you can bring water inside to warm up before adding it to your tanks, you might get warmed up quicker.

Good luck getting through the spring.

this might be overdoing it , but Ive been thinking ...

Ive got an element out of an old electric kettle , still got the wiring and everything . Inefficient I know , but I wonder how long it would need to be on & dunked in the tank to warm my 1500L up a few degrees on an extremely cold night

Either that , or , as its coming into winter here aswell , is there any reason ( apart from its probably more than slightly insane ) that I shouldnt boil a few litres of my fresh , dechlorinated tap water before I dump it in the sump ?

Id also forgotten that the bacteria need a certain temperature to function properly , so I was getting excited about having trout through winter & never having to heat the water . I doubt it will get down to 1 or 2 degrees , but now Im worried how low the water temp will drop in the night and thus affect the bacterias efficiency

Hmmm, my solution to cold weather was to move, but you might consider that a little extreme...

I did just that the other day with a 1100 watt electric cook top burner from one of those portable double burner things. I warmed 100 gallons a degree every 15 min. It would burn fish. I could see the bubbles coming off it.

ahh , so when Im ready to cook them ,I can just leave it on for longer ?

I'm having a similar problem.

My water is heated to 70 degrees F, and the seeds germinate well. Once out in the cold air, the shoots are paralyzed until there's a warm day.

I have heaters in the water, but I haven't yet enclosed the greenhouse, so when the water hits the growbeds, it cools down quickly. I have three 250 watt heaters, one for each 150 gallons. When I get my timer on, so that the water isn't constantly moving through the system, it will help also. The cold weather plants are growing great, and I have algea growing in the smaller tank. This has to mean there are nitrates being used, and my readings stay the same, so there must be some replacement of the nitrates, however, my nitrites are still climbing. Added 35% new water today from the pond. Will check in the morning. Based on feedback, I have stopped feeding the fish.