Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Current temperatre in water = 21oC

Trip to test water parameters,

pH - 7.6
No Ammonia yet
Nitrates and Nitrites not tested

If you already have your fish and your biological filter is not yet functional, all that means is that you must change the water to purge the excess ammonia. This is very similar to having an aquarium - but even aquariums end up having a biological equilibrium of sorts....

Hi Annorra, and welcome...

What you say is indeed true of aquaria... and the establishment of the bio-filtration...and has some relevance to aquaponics...

But fish density and ammonia production... relative to volume of system water in an aquarium... is vastly higher than a typical aquaponics system...

As the system is new... and the fish load and waste production (comparatively) low... then at this stage (as per the posted readings)... water changes are not required, and would only lengthen the cycling process...

Just don't feed... or feed very minimally... as per the golden rules... and cycling with fish is entirely possible...

The kids caught some flies this afternoon and gave them to the fish. The trouts were splashing out of the water to eat them. Fun to watch.

Hi tarmac. Welcome
Just a quick question, not ap related, but why Roleystone?
I lived there for the first 15 years of my life and now live in secret harbour and wouldn't go back by choice. Not to live anyway. But alot has changed since i lived there.
Not sure if its for the better tho. Its definately alot bigger than it used to be, thats for sure
Anyway thats my rant bout roleystone, Don't take it personally or anything and its a little late to change your mind now anyway

[quote="RupertofOZ"]

As the system is new... and the fish load and waste production (comparatively) low... then at this stage (as per the posted readings)... water changes are not required, and would only lengthen the cycling process...

... it seems to me that you'd be testing your water and changing only if necessary.

About right Annora... but we try to avoid the water changes if possible... cycling with fish makes this more difficult to acheive, but with minimal feeding... and regular testing... it can be done...

Jono

Roleystone, because most of our work collegues are there and love living there (Mr Tarmac and I work for the same state department). They kept extolling it's virtues and saying we should also live there. We ignored them for a year and a half because of the commute. But it was relatively affordable compared to other areas we liked. We also hated the idea of being tied to a mortgage for 20yrs. We had previously lived in a country town for 10 years and it is probable that we are caught between wanting a city/country lifestyle.

hi Tarmac how's the system going.

Can you give us an update?

Last visited: Fri Dec 31, 2010 10:43 am

you might need to send her a private message

Thanks gorotsuki69, Ill give that a go