Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just reading the thread and your progress and smiling to myself, thinking your mum has probably been hassling you to clean up your room? Aaah children and their toys. Looks like you are on a mission and obviously enjoying it, good stuff, keep it up! All my smiley faces looked to be in different places.

Let the fun begin!

I noticed that the can of pvc glue said CPVC on it. Just keep in mind that you probably only need regular pvc or cpvc, it does not work to mix the two types as they are different sizes.

Anyway,

I saw that too. I had no idea up until recently you need primer & glue for this stuff.

Looking on with interest
I had no problems with my growth when I feed my fish with the regular fish food you get from you fish shop. (Except the regular issue of Iron deficiency which can be managed with the use of chelted iron.)
Regards
Matt

finally got all the stuff into my room, SOL is already prepared, tomm afternoon the rest gets put together and then by the evening should finish testing and start cycling will put up a video as soon as its done.

Have decided on an Affnan bell siphon for the GB's, couldn't find the funnel shaped reducer but have gotten a 1 1/2" to 3/4" 'reducer' as the man at the shop called it, that is just a 3/4" socket into a 1 1/2" connector, I figure it should do the same, Bernoulli should work just fine still.

So I figure approx. 150 mL of Hummonia, i.e. human urine, in the system twice a week for two weeks, once a week for one week, then the fishies, with hummonia once every two weeks till the fish size up and are increased in numbers. I think that should be enough for a 63 liter fish tank, which I will probably fill with approx. 55 liters. Please advise with regards to this plan or progress.

Hi there, have you got yourself a freshwater master test kit? I think your dosing of hummonia may be too much, but the way to check that you have got enough ammonia is to test for ammonia... For fishless cycling, I think the maximum ammonia level you want is 4ppm with heaps of aeration in the tank... Take note that it may take a day for urine to convert to ammonia...

It does take a while for the bacteria to grow to start the nitrification process. So in reality, 1 or 2 doses should be sufficient. Take note that apparently too much ammonia will sterilise the system, hence no bacteria will grow...

And for a tank that size I would refrain from dosing with hummonia with the fishes in there... and do not add the fishes until your ammonia and nitrite readings are zero.

It really does not take a lot of fishes (big or small) to create sufficient nitrate for plant growth. Although this does depend on the food you use, most aquarium fish food are formulated for minimum waste, hence requiring less water changes. But in AP, you don't need to do water changes since the nitrate are removed by the growing plants... so you want to feed them food that produces waster... The plants will require micronutrients to grow as well as the nitrates, so you will need to ensure that you provide them to ensure good growth.

no haven't got the test kit, is unavailable here, have shouted out to friends abroad to bring it back with them or courier it, lets see how it goes.

Nonetheless your heads up is a big help, i was completely unaware of the sterilization possibility. With this info in hand, I think 100 mL once a week for two weeks, then after a few days the fish.

I have a bad feeling I'm going to go into it flying blind, that test kit is an absolute game changer ]=:

I don't know out humonia levels but I've been adding 5ml to my outdoor system (with fish) & I think it's much bigger than your system. 50 Gal FT & 25 Gal ST. 5ml ammonia will bring it up to 1ppm so you may be off by a factor of 10 or more! I don't add more till the ammonia level drops to 0. Now that it's going to 0 in 24 hours I've upped my dosage to 10ml.

Check around the scientific or maybe university communities for an ammonia kit. Might be easier to locate that the master kit.

Contact the kind people who provided us with this forum, and see if they can do something for you...
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=23&category_id=16

It takes about a good 4 weeks (at least) for the bacteria colony to build up... 8 weeks in colder climates... if you dose with hummonia at your above mentioned rate and add fishes before 4 weeks, I believe you might find that the fishes might be motionless after a while...

If you are flying blind, without a test kit, I would suggest you take the "patience" path... use some fishes to start the system, add some sea salt to the system, and don't add hummonia... feed minimal, and stock minimal...

IMO, you need a test kit to do fishless cycling... (ie with hummonia or other forms of ammonia)... so that you know when the system is cycled. Otherwise it would be like using your fishes as test specimens...

hmmm.

I shall sleep on it, either ways will have to get my hands on a test kit.

Either will try to fishless cycle and play it by hear for a month with absolutely minute additives as per cjin's input.

Or I will add four goldies to it with no additives, save perhaps sea sol or some other form of sea weed extract that I can get my hands on.

Plants will of course be transplanted from the established nursery as soon as cycling starts either way.

I know 5ml per 350L seems minute but we're shooting for 1ppm!

If you can't get a kit for at least ammonia, just add a few goldfish & maybe a teaspoon of sea salt. The plants will let you know if they need something else (probably in a month).

Either fishless cycle using the hummonia

or

use fish

Don't use both together, especially if you don't have a complete test kit.

Hummonia can be really strong stuff. I'm cycling my 300 gallon system at the moment with well aged hummonia. I dosed once with about 200 ml and that brought the ammonia level up over 1 ppm initially, then I waited about two weeks for the ammonia to drop and then the nitrite to drop before dosing again. I did my second dose a day and a half ago. That dose was twice as big 400 ml aprox and it brought my ammonia level up to about 3 ppm. This morning the ammonia level is down to 0 but my nitrite level is over 5 ppm. I would not want to be doing this with fish in the system because it could certainly kill them.

I'm of the opinion that fishless cycling could probably be done with only a few doses done when ammonia and nitrite levels drop. Couple weeks between the first two doses and then the next dose will probably be less than a week later and then if you want to do a final dose to make sure the levels drop in 24 hours.

good Luck getting ammonia and nitrite test kits, those are really the important ones through cycling and of course pH testing is a good idea long term.

Thanks for the input guys am going to go with the canary test approach, will chuck in 6 goldfish from day 1, no other source of ammonia, will add only seaweed extract if I can get it, will put a bag full of egg shells, a couple of old nails and a banana into the bed to supplement minerals.

Have successfully built Affnans bell siphons, cut up and planned all the PVC, have tested the siphons and they work fabulously details of the testing will be in an upcoming video.

One issue I have found though, the pumps that I have, one rated 1.5 m and the other 0.9 m are never going to get the water from the ST to the FT considering the hieght of the chairs and stool I'm using. Can anyone recommend what head pump I need if the top of the FT is 44 inches above the bottom of the ST and I want to feed three growbeds with it...? Water volume is approx. FT 60 liters, GB will be approx. the same and so will the ST.

oh good God, started washing the gravel, its hell I tell you, this should be a form of torture, telling the prisoners they can go free if they can just get the water to run clear, three hours I tell you, constantly pouring water in a bucket, swirling the gravel, emtying the water and repeating, no significant progress, immense amounts of water wasted.

gravel seems to have some organic matter in it too, the water smells a bit and there are soapy white bubbles in the water, not many at all just a few but they're there. what can that mean? din't find anything but rock, a few twigs and what looked like a couplke of ciggerette filters in it.

Not all of it is uniform grey, very few are black, some are white, thick these might be limestone or marble, any way to verify that...?

please, please, puh-leez, help.