Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello to the group. Am new here and just setting up my aquaponic system. Am ready for cycling and want to do it fish free, simply cannot get pure ammonia, don't fancy throwing a dead fish in or peeing in the tank for fear of adding bad bacteria to it, is there any other way people have done it as without fish in the tank, where do the plants get their nourishment from. What about tossing in some fish food, as it would be uneaten, will that start the ammonia off, but still wonder where the plants will get their feed from with out the fish poo. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

Hi Jacjap

Fishless cycling is so easy and simple and flexible you'd be amazed.

You can use a little ammonia every day or a huge amount on day one and then not worry any more.
Either way will work.

Ammonia sources:

1/ urea (from nursery) plus seasol for trace elements

2/ power feed or charlie carp (from nursery) plus seasol for trace elements

Regardless of how you decide to cycle, bear in mind it takes time.
It won't happen in 2 weeks but given the temp now I think 4-6 weeks.

cheers Lou

Thanks Lou, that was most helpful. I have tried the nursarys and pet shps around here and none keep pure ammonia. They all say it is too dangerous to carry, but I don't know. So it would be best to do #2 then: power feed or charlie carp (from nursery which I can get) plus seasol for trace elements? Thank you very much.

Jacjap, if you go fishless cycling, you need to commit yourself to the end of the cycle.. You cannot decide to add fishes half-way... Keep that in mind...

Plus you will need a water test kit as you need to test regularly to know when to stop adding ammonia, at which stage the cycling is at, and when it is safe to add fishes...

crack 6 pack, drink
relax
pee in tank
relax

urine is sterile if you are healthy.
If you are worried about bad bacteria, ask yourself this- how are you going to stop the dirt/slugs/snails/frogs/worms/bird poop etc that inevitably will end up in your fishtank which carry bacteria?

Hi Jacjap

Whichever method you choose is up to you, both will work.
I used urea (very high doses) only as an experiment. When I first started I bought a DVD
which clearly stated that using too much urea will lead to a system in crisis.

I thought this was clearly wrong, so I used 100 teaspoonfuls in 2500 litre system, it worked.

Personally, if I was to do it again, I would use urea (not as much) plus a cup of seasol and walk
away. test it weekly, when cycled add the fish.
ps: the plants go in on day 1.

But, whatever you do it'll work, it's really simple.

Just for your info , these are the results of my cycling.



cheers Lou

Very true, but how does one know if one is healthy?
There are countless bacteria that can be present in human urine and the person will have
no indication at all of their presence.

I'll pick one to illustrate my point.

chlamydia

Up-to three quarters of people who have chlamydia don’t notice any signs at all.

http://www.couldihaveit.com.au/chlamydia.asp

And how does one test for this bacteria?

A simple urine test.

So. would I be happy to eat fruit/veg from someone's Peeponic system

HELL NO



You are forgetting species cross over.

Just because a bacteria or virus or parasite is harmful to one species doesn't automatically
make it harmful to all species. It's only when they do cross over that we have problems.

Bird flu, swine flu are just a few that come to mind

Having said all this, I do think it worthwhile trying to minimize any warm blooded animal
excrement entering an AP system.
cheers Lou

Each to their own trout.... But I think you would find that you can't catch chlamydia from an aquaponic system someone has peed in, when you eat the produce..

Personally I wouldn't have a problem eating from some ones peeponics system. Just as I wouldn't have a problem eating food grown with manure in ground growing systems. In fact I'm just making up some chicken manure compost tea that I will spray on our ground crops.

Charlie Carp is amazing for cycling a system and combined with seasol you will get amazing plant growth.

Chicken manure is strong stuff EB, have you used it before. You dont want to burn the plants

Charlie Carp and Seasol are great for cycling... seasol for nutrients, CC to create an Amm spike and get the system rolling.

If you are wanting to look at Peeponics please do just for another viewpoint... we used Urine to originally start our system, and many see no problem using your own pee in your own system... you can use urea just remember neither work straight away, they need to convert first so dont get impatient and keep dumping it in...

We recently used a fish food slurry in ours to start the system up again after it was dormant for a while... you could use this and Charlie Carp or Urine for the Ammonia if you wanted to... you would pretty much get a similar effect as having fish in the system then... your plants nutrients come from the feed anyway... its just much easier with fish!

Good Luck!

I think as a compost tea it would be ok tho? Especially if its been aged like a fine wine... Mmmm

Yeah, had chickens for a long time and have made a few different compost/manure teas... This will be aged in a barrel (just like wine) but aerated with an air pump as well.

trout
ever eaten anything grown in soil?

People have been using peeponics for a long time now trout.