Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Derek. The metal strapping worked great, as it helps stop the barrels from spreading.

As for my pump, the only reason I have it on for 30 minutes is it can't fill the barrels within 15 minutes, and the timer only does 15 minute increments. I think I'll take your advice, and run them 30/60. I wonder if 30/90 would be adequate?

You just have to set it up to keep the water clear. Less fish = 30/90, lots of fish 30/30

Checked my chemical levels today.

PH: 8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 5

Naturally, the Nitrate is coming from the 30ml of Seasol I added on Sunday. I guess it's time I got some ammonia happening. I read that urine is good, as is pure ammonia If so, how much of either should I be adding?

Nitrate is not coming from the seasol.

1 dose of urine will give it a good boost - or a handfull or two of urea.

One good bladder full then leave a few days and test again

Really? I assumed that's what would have caused it to rise?

I should have a dose of ammonia ready in morning - the lemon tree will have to miss out

Nice way of hanging the barrels. Couldn't see if you had an over flow on the GB's. Mine all fill and the flow is enough to keep the siphon going until the pump stops. So all the GB's empty in a cycle. The overflow stops them from filling too much. Even my 200ltr drum filled with Bio-balls is on a flood and drain with auto siphon and gets emptied in a cycle.

Seasol has no ammonia - hence does not contribute to the nitrate cycle.

Yes Urine makes a fine free fishless cycling material. If you are worried about pathogens you can pee in a bottle and leave it for a few weeks to let it turn into ammonia which will kill off most pathogens that would likely be in any healthy person's urine. From a healthy male not taking any strong medications, I would now hesitate to use fresh urine for cycling.
One good pee is more than enough to get you started. It will take a couple days for the urine to change into ammonia so don't add more if the ammonia readings don't register right away.
Bring the ammonia up a bit and let it fall again before dosing again. When you can bring your ammonia reading up to 1 and have it and the nitrite readings both reach 0 within 24 hours, you can call yourself cycled. Keep adding close to that amount of ammonia every day or three to make sure your bacteria don't starve. Once you are about to get fish, stop adding the ammonia a couple days before adding the fish.

Stick with the 30/30 or 30/45 and probably do it 24/7 till you get finished cycling. Once finished cycling you can adjust the times and even leave things off overnight but getting an air pump and putting some air stone in the fish tank would probably be a good idea especially for when the system pump isn't running but probably a fine idea for all the time.

I added some human ammonia last night. This morning I had a reading of 0.5, so I guess it's starting to work. I'll check again tonight and see if it's increased.

Ammonia on the rise - measured at 1 this evening. I'll do a full test tomorrow afternoon or Saturday.

Just try and keep the level of ammonia below 5 - if you go much higher it starts to retard the bacteria.

Its amazing how little humonia is required to cycle a system - and its amazing how much a mature system can take too

Chemical levels for today:

PH: 8 - seems to be stable
Ammonia: 1 - doesn't seem to be rising, not sure if this level is enough for cycling?
Nitrite: 1 - risen quite a bit
Nitrate: 6 - risen a little

So, correct me if I'm worng, this tells me that ammonia being converted to nitrite, nitrate to nitrate, and PH is stable.

Should I doing anything about the PH?

Also, starting to think about fish. Is next weekend a possibility for adding fish? That's 2 weeks since the seedlings were added.

I'll probably end up getting SPs, but would love to have a crack at the barra. SPs are probably hardier and not carnivorous, but the barra growth rate looks attractive!

I plan to get 20 fish for my setup - do the stockists sell that small amount?

You'll be fine for fish in a week, a lot of people add fish straight away, you just have given your bacteria a head start.

If you want to add fish soon, stop adding humonia now, let everything settle, add fish. Go the Barra - faster results.

Ph will drop by itself, its not too big a deal at this point.

Some fish farms will supply a small amount of fish, you just need to ring around and fine someone in a good mood

You are correct with your ammonia - nitrite - nitrate.