Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,
We have recently started our system and its been going about 4 - 5 weeks now. In that time, we have had several frosts. My first questions is:- does the bacteria die in frosts?

Secondly, I was given 25 yearling trout and after putting them in our system which had been running 2 weeks, the ammonia started to spike. As the weather was very cold (water temp 12 deg) I persevered with water changes and testing daily until a week later I finally removed the fish. I now just have plants (dying - probably from the frosts and lack of warm weather) and I am waiting for it to cycle. I am adding seasol daily. How much seasol should I put in? Is it dependant on the number of plants? I have a 1000lt fish tank with about 1420 lt grow beds. I am worried that with the plants not doing too good that it will never cycle correctly. The only thing growing well are peas. Does the system cycle without plants?

I have read that you know when it cycles when the nitrite levels spike and then settle down. I am still not reading any nitrite or nitrates in my system.

Do I keep waiting and hoping for warmer weather?

I know it will take time, but I am worried that it won't happen at all.

And I forgot to ask, since taking the fish out, I haven't changed any water. The ammonia level is still very high. Should I change some water or leave all that ammonia in there?

If there are no fish, ammonia levels are not critical, except that is to say you need ammonia to cycle your system. The ammonia will go in time. When it has, and the same with the nitrite, then it will be safe to replace fish.

Nitrite will spike.
You cannot kill bacteria with low temps, only very high temps.
However in low temps they are quite sleepy and don't do a great job, nor do they breed terribly quickly. Unfortunately patience is the way to go.

Plants in a cycling system will suffer.
Plants are to remove Nitrates. Nitrates take a long time to build up to toxic levels, so don't worry excessivly about your plants until the fish are back in.

Being that you hare seeing no nitrification by bacteria, can I ask what poisons you may have in your tanks? It coudl eb the cold, but I would check that you're not killing them somehow.
Treated water, polluted water, overspray, fungicides all these things will lead to bacteria suffering.
WHat are your tanks made from, what were they cleaned with What kind of gravel do you have? Did you wash it? What are your growbeds made from? How is your system set up? How often do you pump?How long did you have the trout in there?
Some photos and a detailed description of your system would make it so much easier to answer with some authority.

Thanks for the quick reply. My system is one of Murray's so whats that - fibreglass?

Water was initially from our unused swimming pool. The ph in that was really high. We added some hydrochloric ? acid but all that did was reduce the ph for a day or two and then it kept going back up.

After the fish were put in the ammonia went up to the top of the chart. I probably dumped 1/3 water every second day for about a week and the ammonia stayed up in the high ranges. I topped it up with town water cos the ph was already high. So only chemicals would be whats in our drinking water. As mentioned Seasol is the only other thing in the water. The fish were in the tank for 1 week. Now happily swimming around in the pool.

The water only took a day to be totally clear. We have the clay pebbles.

So I don't worry about the plants dying? Do I need them to be healthy for it to cycle correctly?

I am happy to be patient but just unsure if I am on the right track.

The system will CYCLE WITHOUT PLANTS.

You can put plants in, but lettuce and other low nitrate high water crops will do better than say tomatoes.

High pH makes the ammonia more toxic, adding acid will temporarily drop the pH, but something is pulling it back up. I assume this to be the clay balls, Clay often has a high pH, How high is high BTW do you have any test values? How high is your ammonia?

Did you wash the clay balls before adding to the system? Do you have any pics? To be fiar, I have NFI what "Murray's Systems" look liek or behave like, so some information and pics would assist greatly.

A brand new system filled with water from an old pool and town water. I fear water treatment chemicals may be inhibiting your bacteria and probably hindering your plants a bit but the plants are probably mainly suffering from cold and lack of nitrates.

Chlorine or chloramine are bad for bio-filter bacteria. Plain old chlorine can be gotten rid of by letting water bubble or air out or cycle through an empty system for several days before adding any fish or ammonia source. Chloramine is a little more difficult to get rid of so if your town treats with it, you will need to do some research on water treatment and agers. There should be a newer thread in useful information about this topic, I started the topic.

Keep in mind that if your town only treats with chlorine but you were changing water in a system with huge amounts of ammonia, your system now essentially has chloramine in it and it could take a terribly long time to cycle as the high ammonia and chloramine/chlorine are going to be inhibiting the bacteria.

You might want to get a chlorine test kit from an aquarium shop to help you sort this out.

Hmmm - KudaPucat - you live in Melbourne, what would be in our water?????

Oh and heres a pic of when it was first installed.

After checking out our water supply, it would appear that only chlorine and fluoride as well as lime to level the ph is used in our water.

For a start it will have chlorine or worse still chloramine best ring your water supplier and ask
Seasol you will need 1/2 cup to start then after a few days 1 cap full every second day thats only if you have plants in there

There are 4 separate reservoirs or such that supply melbourne, they all treat differently.
I have NFI. I add water straight from the tap to my system, but couldn't tell you what's in it. and nver much at a time.

Hi LittleDevils - I have cycled one of Murrays Systems in Melbourne - took nearly 8 weeks. Planted Lettuce and Pak Coy - dosed with Seasol as advised by Food&Fish. Ammonia spiked first - then Nitrites - I added fish (50 Silver Perch + 2 Catfish fingerlings) on sixth day of high Nitrites readings. By eighth day of initial Nitrite readings - Ammo and Nitrite readings were zero - a trace reading of Nitrates appeared. I added fish on May 20 - lost 1 catfish since then. From my experience - I believe cycling without fish is the way to go - no water changes - no great fish losses - even harvested some Pak Choi before fish went in. Be patient - it will work - Best wishes - ColinW

Thanks for the encouragement ColinW,

Another week has passed and still nothing. Can I have missed it? At the moment I am only testing ph, amm and nitrite. I notice on your photo that your nitrite is the same as mine is daily - nil. Should I be checking nitrate in case I missed the nitrite spike, or is that not possible? My ph keeps creeping up.

Fish are doing extremely well in the pool, jumping out of the water at feeding time and growing dramatically.

When the system starts to cycle, how many of my fish should I put in it, and at what point should I put them in? They are yearling trout, probably about min 20cm (but then I haven't measured them and I am no fish expert)

What are your readings now on the ammonia, nitrite and yes you should probably do some nitrate readings too, as well as pH and temperature.
And I would probably be testing the water in the pool if you are feeding trout in it, what sort of filtration do you have hooked up for the pool?

Update on my system and a little help needed again.....

I am nearly at 8 weeks now and my ph has settled down to being around 7.
The nitrites started to show around 5th Sept and peaked at 12th. They have stayed at 5.0 since then, I have been checking the nitrates and they peaked at 5 around the 11th and have remained there ever since.

I was told to stop the seasol which I did and the ammonia levels went down to zero. I added 10 yearling trout on 13th September (only cos I don't want to purchase my silver purchase until I am sure everything is ok)

Since then the ammonia is still zero and the nitrites sky high. How long will the nitrites remain this high? My plants are still not doing too well, we still have very cold nights and they are getting knocked around a bit, but some plants are showing a little bit of growth.

Any ideas on how to get the nitrites down?

By the way the 25 trout in the pool are doing sensationally well. They have grown heaps and I haven't lost one.