Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Oh, letting it sit will definitely increase the ammonia content. Just smell any diaper pail to get that answer.

From Wikipedia:

"Urine contains large amounts of urea, an excellent source of nitrogen for plants. As such it is a useful accelerator for compost. Urea is 10,000 times less toxic than ammonia and is a byproduct of deamination (2 NH3 molecules) and cellular respiration's (1 CO2 molecule) products combining together. Other components include various inorganic salts such as sodium chloride (the discharge of sodium through human urine is known as natriuresis). It tastes salty, and it does not cause cancer or disease."

Also...

"Organisms that cannot easily and quickly remove ammonia usually have to convert it to some other substance, like urea or uric acid, which are much less toxic. "

So fish excrete ammonia through their gills, we turn it into urea. I think what happens in the diaper pail is that the urea is breaking back down into ammonia and such. But I'm not a chemist, just a mom.

What's wrong with just letting the system cycle naturally with fish, its not difficult or hard yakka - so it may take a little longer (not totally convinced on that) but think of the satisfaction of doing something properly - my thoughts :happy2:

Lots of folks do just that Ell but many fish die due to not changing water soon enough etc. It does take some time for the cycle and I say its safer for the fish to be place in a precycled enviornment. I think the best way to go is with some ammonia myself but couldn't source any, so guppies did it for me for the most part, with a few goldfish as a finisher.
Using ammonia you could have the system cycled for a larger amount of fishies prior to arrival. I know I was running all about when my perch went in, due to water temps etc.
my preferences for cycling a system
1. seed bio from a cycled system
2. ammonia
3 fish
I'd avoid the urine myself pee in yer own pool!

Yep John, bit of tongue in cheek, I wouldn't use edible fish just a few goldies

In some countries people compost human excreament for fertilizing fields to grow crops for human consumption. This has been done for centurys. This can propagate disease and is not allowed in the USA. I wonder whether viruses can also be transmitted in urine. I would not trust it.

The ammonia water I used is from ACO hardware from a company only 50 miles from my house. It is 10% ammonia which is about 300% of the concentration of normal household cleaner ammonia. 5 millilitres of this creates 7 ppm in a 20 gallon aquarium. It has no detergent in it.

I would rather put some feeder fish 10 cents each and meant for feeding larger fish in to start the bacteria, than to use any human excreation including urine.

I'd have no issues with pissing in my pond - after all I already regularly shit in my own nest.