Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Seasol wont affect the cycling, it will just help the plants.

As long as you have enough air in the water for the fish the pumps dont need to be run overnight, but most people have the pumps running as much as possible while cycling - whether it helps or not I dont know, but personally I would run the pump overnight at least a couple of times, say 9, 12 and 3.

Started cycling and added a single handful of urea (from my searches that seems to be a start) last Saturday morning. Tested just now still no ammonia reading however ph has jumped to 7.6 so i measured high range 8 - 8.2 On Tues ph was 7.2. Water smells noticably today and is quite green Is this just part of the cycling? Do I need to wait longer for the ammonia or did i not add enough?

Anyway assuming this cycling happens my plan is to go with some advanced barra fingerlings. Rang a fish farm a month ago and they were at 70mm so prob be over 100mm (at least ??) by the time I have finished cycling. It is much later than i will normally look at getting them so prob only get about 30? But allows me to learn a bit and gets system off the ground. What size pellets for these fish - would 2mm be ok?

I am wondering what kind of air pump i would need as a temporary one for my system (will get a better one later). Will one of these $10 ones do? How do they work do I need an air line hose or do i just attach pump to inside of tank underwater?
http://www.theaquariumshop.com.au/shopd ... +Air+Pumps

Thanks

The air pump needs to sit above the water level in your FT(not over it) near by.
The bigger the better as you know you will increase your system size.
Always good to have heaps of O2 in the system just in case the power goes out!
Do you have a cover over the Tank?
Sometimes we will get a pea soup looking FT.
Then all of a sudden the water will go clear overnight.

My experience with urea addition (through urine) has been that the ammonia does not register straight away, because urea is converted to ammonia by urease over a period of time. If you threw a full handfull in and are registering no ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, I can't help but wonder whether it is yet to convert to ammonia .

Maybe make up a small amount in a bucket and run a test to see what you get in terms of ammonia and then go from there. If in fact it is a problem with the urea not converting due to no urease (which I doubt, because others have used urea in the past) then you can always add a little urine to introduce the urease.

Interesting that line if you threw in a hand full
wouldent it be easier to just pee straight in tank

my hand was a closer target

I've heard it can take a while to register with the urea (granules) don't know if i should wait a couple more days. If I did VB's test wouldn't i have to wait a week??

No cover on tank yet will definetly get something soon. One of my goldfish disappeared in last few days either dead on bottom/ a bird grabbed it or sleeping on bottom. I stirred tank with some PVC and it didn't come up. Just trying to figure out what I'm going to do what its a bigger fish that dies

You should get a reading within two days, its been 5 now.

What size was your tank? One handful per 1000l works well to get an initial reading.

Fish tank is 1000L Sump is 500L. I only put a handful in should i put more in now?

Before you add more - make sure your ammonia test kit is working. If its new it's ok, but an old one may not be reading. I nearly lost my advanced trout due to that one.

The water being smelly is a good sign that something is happening - would you call it a very bad smell, or just a smell?

If everyhting seems ok, another handfull definately wont hurt, test in 24 hours time. If no reading, test in 48 hours - if still no reading I would suspect your test kit.

Its a brand new test kit. 2 days ago the water was starting to clear up and i was thinking i could see further into the tank. Now clarity is definitly worse only a couple of cm. When i went out this morning i wondered what the smell was (from a couple of meters away) then realised didn't notice so much this afternoon. Couple of days ago it was just a vague watery or creek smell now it is worse.
How do i tell if the ammonia test kit is working?

THanks

Try an ammonia only test kit from you local aquarium, BTW what are your other readings for nitrite and nitrate?

I'm back to work now

nothing for them either

You doing it right?

Usually smelly water has a reading of something.

Get a whole heap of aeration into it.

definately doing tests right - very careful

I put a double handful of Urea in on Thurs. Didn't test on Friday. Saturday's test are below 2 pics of same test. Ammonia then Nitrite then Nitrate. I read it as Ammonia 0, Nitrate0-0.25 (something there) Nitrate not sure thought 0 at first. Ph is not in pics but high range is 8.2-8.4.

Water doesn't seem to smell any more but clarity is still very poor. I thought the last 2 Goldfish had died so i stired the tank a bit then they came to the surface. It was just clarity is only a couple of cm. I hope this gradually clears.
Thanks

Well 2 weeks minus 2days since start of cycling and here are the readings.
Ammonia 0.5-1.0
Nitrite 5.0 ouch
Nitrate 5.0
Ph (i didn't test but probably still around 8.2 - 8.4) will test in next few days

water is still soup like visibility of a couple of cm. Tank has been covered for about 3 days.

This cycling is going slow Should I add some seashells to bring the Ph down? Will the water clear in the next 2 weeks?
Thanks