Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Cycling is basically building up the good bacteria in your system, you need to have a source of ammonia to do this. This is a naturally occuring waste product of fish.

Fishless cycling requires you to add ammonia from another source, generally people do what they have been told never to do, that is pee in the pool

to better understand some of the theories behind it all have read through some of the stickies in this section of the forum viewforum.php?f=11

the nitrogen cycle and ammonia the silent killer are two really good ones.

regards,

Himzo.

I still remember the stress of my first son's birth ..... as i pointed out to my wife SHE got to lay down the whole way thgrough ,, I had to stand:)

Yes time for a refresher..
'cycling' is once the natural chemistry is in balance Ammo - nitrite - nitrate.

System up and running...
Componants assembled and system commisioned.

Hi Himzol,

Thanks for leading me to the posting... It is much clearer now, though I am still thinking on why people are told not to pee into the tanks? So where do you get the ammonia from then??

One other thing is, where does those bacteria mentioned in the posting come from if all you add into the water is ammonia.

Sorry did not do much biology in school.

Hi guys,

Finally purchased my BYAP kit, 1000L FT with two GB. Just managed to finish setting up the GB in place and wash the expanded clay. Will continue further this weekend.

Based on Joel's book, he recommended using cheap feeder goldfishes to start the FT, but I checked around my place and found that each feeder goldfish cost about $1.50 - $2.00 each. It was pointed out to me that I could get Trout for that price and if all goes well, I could eat them after growing them out as well.

Any thoughts? What are the chances of successfully cycling the system with trout this late in winter?

Cycling - chemical balancing act done in nature. - and BYAP alow the water to establish colonies of good bacs

Also called nitrification cycle..
The is a great atricle in the latest BYAP mag

I put trout in my 6 bed system this time of the year last winter, and all went really well.

IMO run a fishless cycle for approx 1-2 weeks (to give the bacteria a start), and then go for the trout...