Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes, it sounds like things are working. Hurrah! Soon you will get 0-ammonia, 0-nitrite, and then you are totally cycled. Put some plants/seeds in to start using the nitrates. Your nitrite is still a little high for the comfort of the fish. You may end up with a case of ich if you don't get that down promptly. Do a 50% water change or 2 if you don't see that dropping in the next day.

i already have plants growing i had converted an existing setup

10ppm ouch!
5ppm ouch!

nitrite level is now down to .5 ppm ammonia is zero, nitrate is still around 50 ppm ph wemt back to normal.

0.5ppm - big sigh of relief

Oooh, much much better. Stop putting in the stuff for new tank syndrome at this point (if you haven't already). My setup has been running about 8 weeks now. Plant growth had been mostly lackluster (nitrates 20-40) until a few days ago. I added some greensand because I felt that trace elements were lacking. All of a sudden, everything is sending out new leaves. You might consider adding a couple handfuls of greensand or some chelated iron at this point to help the plants out a bit. If you're seeing healthy growth, don't worry about it yet.

rbl, did the nitrite come down by itslef, or with a wate change?

if by itself then YAY, plant plant plant

What is this greensand Janet. Never heard of it, till you spoke about it.

its sand you've kept in the fridge too long................

Greensand is glauconite, an iron potassium silicate. It provides at least 22 trace minerals, including iron and potash. It's mined in a variety of places, including New Jersey--a state next to Pennsylvania. It's used as a supplement in organic gardening.

levels went down without me doing nething, ammonia and nitrite are both at 0 today, ph is like a flat 7 now, everything looks good, nitrate is about 50ppm leaves on some of the plants were getting a lil yellow around the edges but on a whole the look fine.

coolness. Now that everying is happy happy may i suggest adding some crushed sea shells to your system (in contact with the water) so that they can buffer your system against the natural downward drift of PH?

where do i get them? any special type? is there anything that i need to be on the look for (other than testing water levels), if this is working already it seems to be even easyer then when i used the chemicals, just add food and water and im straight

shell grit any grain store that has chook food

Hi,

My system has persistently had a pH of under 7.0......usually around 6.8.......even though my two bio-filters use oyster shell as media.

Three days ago, I sifted through a 5kg bag of shell grit and I put the dust through my bio-filter......only a tiny upward movement.

I then submerged a small plastic container (300mm x 200mm x 200mm deep) with about 25mm of shellgrit in the container.......24 hours later the pH had moved from 6.9 to 7.5.

I'll be managing things so that I don't get this sort of spike in the future, but the episode makes the point that shellgrit will certainly adjust pH upward.....quickly!

Gary