Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I realise that we must buy the bacteria to put in the system. But how often does one have to replentish their system with bugs. Once the system is established is it self replentishing?

Once the bio-filter is established with the right bugs, it remains self replenishing...

Unless your water temp and/or pH values get radically out of range..... or you let it dry out for several days...

You can buy pre-prepared "beneficial bacteria" .... but there's a real question mark as to whether or not they actually work.... in any time that it would have taken for them to become active naturally...

That's the thing Davina.... the bacteria are naturally occurring... you just need to create the right environment for them and wait... they'll do the rest in 4-6 weeks...

Using filter gunk/water from someones aqaurium (that already contains the bacteria)... or seeding with system water and/or gravel from some helpful AP'ers system... will help shorten the time to "cycle"....

Or you can use "fishless" cycling methods like Seasol, Urea balls, urine (your own... if you're not squeamish about it).... some use dead prawns/fish....

Or you can just add fish... and juggle the balls and roll the dice.... just kidding....

If you cycle with fish... you need, at the very least.... a test kit, spare water, for water changes, and the time to test DAILY.... and to report your findings here for guidance....

Oh... and the last point is important... be prepared to seek guidance... it's free and readily available around here...

Most of the fish "kills" are those that usually go it alone... and don't post until it's too late....

By the way... welcome .... read through the forum.... knowledge is power....

Thanks for that. Was in here many moons ago. still haven't started the system. I will though before all the days are done. So the only thing you feed is the fish. And this feed is bought from feed merchants. Is there any rocket science in making your own fish food.

i have been reading all day on this site and i am just about to fall asleep. Better get up and work on the system. lol

Fair bit of info on making your own fish food too - but its cheap enough to not really worry about. Depends what your time is worth.

Dont buy any additive 'bugs' your just wasting your money - let it happen by itself.

Hi Davina, there is a thread from last week worth a read regarding the bacteria process , its worth a read, best of luck and patience is a virtue http://www.backyardaquaponics/forum/vie ... t=bacteria

Ok link is WRONG the topics is Sludge for New Systems, in general system discussions sorry

There is no need to buy bacteria, they will happen all on their own in time. There are plenty of ways to help "jump start" this process.

I highly recommend starting a small system (something as small as an aquaium with a bin of gravel up to perhaps a barrel ponics system) and fishless cycling it so you can practice testing and see how your water and media affect things like pH. Then once you add some fish, you already have some experience going for you. It also gives you time to tinker while you figure out what your "bigger" system design will be, what methods you want to use, what fish you want to grow etc. This smaller system will also provide you with seasoned media to kick start the bigger system when you get there.

Good luck and welcome.

I've just finished building a benchtop 100 litre CHIFT PIST system (I'll start a thread for it a bit later) to get me started while I wait for my IBC fish tank and sump. It's all up and running but I haven't added any amonia or bacteria yet.

Firstly, I have access to a large pond with quite a few medium sized goldfish living in it. The gardened who looks after the park that the pond is in told me I can help myself to some water and gunk off the side on the pond (not the goldies though ) . Is this going to be help start things off?

Secondly, I plan to fishless cycle with humonia, is there a recommended amount that should be added to say around 100 litres? or just take one big pee in there switch on the pump?

Not a lot Taz

For 100 litre system I would suggest a short squirt rather than a long relief (so to speak) I had two long relieves in 1000 litres and two days later the ammonia and nitrite went off the scale.

Add a little and test for a few days. After the ammonia and nitrite rise then start falling add a little more.

I've been running a pee ponics system. It does not take much. Just so you know, I usually leave the pee bottled (like in a water bottle or somthing) to age a while before use. The aging has two benefits, first it allows the urea content of the urine to convert to ammonia (this happens naturally with a little time, I found two weeks to be an ok minimum for my pee) and bottled urine that converts to ammonia (with a pH of over 9) kills off most pathogens that are commonly in urine from a healty person (like e. coli.)

As to dosing. I agree, you don't need much. A little dribble per day or more likely every other day will probably be enough.
I cycled a 200 + liter system using 100-200 ml of hummonia per dose. I recommend dose once and wait till the dose mixes through the system and then test. If you use aged or bottled pee, the ammonia should already be there for testing. If you use fresh pee, you need to have more patients since the ammonia won't show up for a few days and if you keep dosing, you will raise the ammonia level off the charts which usually slows the whole process down. You only want to bring the ammonia up to 1 or 2 ppm and then wait for it to start dropping before you dose again. You also probably don't want to let the nitrite get too high so you might not want to dose too much till it starts dropping too. Once you can bring the ammonia level up to 1 and have both ammonia and nitrite back down to 0 in 24 hours, you can consider the system cycled. Keep the bacteria alive with small doses of hummonia till a few days before you are gonna put fish into the system.