Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Heres a recap of your progress Di..

27th April (system 2 days old)
PH - 7.8
AMM - 2
NITRI - .25
NITRA - 5

30th April (system 5 days old)
PH - 7.8
AMM - 2
NITRI - 5
NITRA - 5

1st May (system 6 days old)
PH - 8
AMM - 1
NITRI - 5
NITRA - 5

4th May (system 9 days old)
PH - 7.4
AMM - 7.4
NITRI - 5
NITRA - 20

6th May (system 11 days old)
PH - 7.4
AMM - .25
NITRI - 2
NITRA - 20

9th May (system 13 days old)
PH - 7.2
AMM - .25
NITRI - 0
NITRA - 0

11th May (system 15 days old)
PH - 7.6
AMM - .25
NITRI - 0
NITRA - 5

19th May (system 19 days old)
PH - 7.4
AMM - .25
NITRI - 0
NITRA - 0




What is interesting is you had some form of nitrate from the start which is odd but as the system developed the nitrate seemed to spike to around 20 then back off to zero in the last week. Whats reasuring is the nitrites are gone which indicate the nitrate colony is well developed.

As bunson mentioned this is all good

That is good about the nitrites. Thanks for posting like that and for your observations. It is reassuring for me to have you all watching out for me (so to speak). I will be setting out some tap water to de-chlorinate (in the small tank with air) so that I can add it to the big tank if I still need ammonia (which it looks like I will.) The fish are happy though, they are in the big tank now and they are eating very well! The plants, while maybe not as happy as they could be, are not unhappy and still growing.
Gardening makes one have to be patient.... I so want some yellow squash and zucchini from my own garden and some cherry tomatoes...... ~grin~ (remind me I said that when I am fussing I have an over abundance of those very things hahaha)

Bunson,
Yes goldfish food (will find some other). And will hunt for the seaweed extract.
I have 6 comets (feeder fish) in approx 70 gal of water.
They are small so I will need tiny food for them.
They are happy though, lots of room and plenty of food for them... (where I was having to hold some food back before because of the ammonia level in the small tank.

I will prep some tap water to add.

Thank you for your help. I appreciate you all having my back here and offering encouragement and less worry for me. ~smiles~

Totally agree with Bunson. I read those water numbers and thought, "That's exactly what they need to be!" I would say add a few more fish. Use the process of nature that your system is based on to keep your balance, especially since there may be other trace chemicals in your tap water (from the city/county water treatment facility).

Remember, aquaponics systems are a great example of an ecosystem in action. Ecosystems are all around us and operating just fine with only minimal (and some, no) involvement from human beings! We are simply putting together the materials for nature to take it's course.

With numbers like you are getting, your bacteria are alive and thriving. The fish you have in there now are excreting waste so if the bacteria were not alive your amonia would be higher than .25.

very cool.... I will pick up some more comets when I go to town next. I don't want to add the tilapia just yet but hopefully soon I will have enough saved to order them and also have everything just where it needs to be system wise.

Thanks Steve, to you also for helping me feel at ease with this. With you all backing me, I feel like I can do this... otherwise I would have not thought I could have. ~smiles~ I am VERY pleased to see my garden growing up from seed....

20 fish total... they are not big and since they are feeder fish (comets), I doubt but a few will make it to be any size at all. None of them are as big as my index finger at this time. I hope that will keep everything at a nice level... we will see in the next couple of days.

Just a reminder Di, with the fish it is relatively easy to control the NH4 levels by controlling how much and how often you feed them. Then let your colonies of bacteria do their job!!

I remember when I first started and had a couple of fish in there and I was thinking the fish were doing the ammonia levels, someone told me to hold back on the food.... at that time I did not know it was the water source not so much the fish. Thank you for keeping that in the forefront of my thought center. I will be paying close attention to the levels this week to see what difference the extra fish will make.
Appreciate the help... I really do. Thank you.

today is
ammonia solid 0.25
nitrate (light) 5.0

(that is all I tested today)

Thursday 5.24.12

Temp 75F
pH 7.4
Ammonia 0.50 (I had two comets die overnight, not sure if that is why... they are removed now)
Nitrite 1.0 (solid)
Nitrate 5.0 - 10 (not totally sure - the difference in color is sometimes just too subtle)

the fish I got (comets) are just the feeder fish from the pet shop so they don't normally have a good healthy life although I have had some in the past (not for this project) that have thrived and grown to be a good size. I think I still have some from the first batch I bought.. the ones that are dying are the most recent batch

I have seen a similar pattern in my fish. I currently have only 2 goldfish left, one from the very first batch of 15 I bought almost a year ago. The other is from the latest batch of 5 I bought around 3 weeks ago. This latest batch is the 4th batch I have bought over the last year my system has been running. I may need to check my dissolved O2 level to see if that's the issue as I can only seem to keep 1 or 2 alive in that system. The plants are growing pretty well though!?!? And my testing numbers are all still looking great with 0-.25 NH4, 0 NO2, 5-10 NO3 pretty consistantly.

well, since they are "feeder" fish, I am sure they take the healthier ones to grow out and sell at a higher price and they figure the ones that are less healthy will be dinner for something anyway.

6.3.12

pH 7.4
ammonia 0.25
nitrite 0.25
nitrate 5.0 - 10 to close to call

These numbers look ok but I lost 4 fish between last night and now.
The only thing I can think of is that they might all be from the last batch I bought and that they might not have been too healthy. (I bought the last batch a week and a half ago to two weeks)....
It is just weird that they are dying all this close together. I think the "original" ones that made it are still doing ok but they are not moving around a lot in there this afternoon. I have 2 working air strips in the water plus when the GB siphons out and splashes.... so I don't think it is for lack of oxygen in the water.... I hope it is just because they were not a healthy batch of fish. I am not going to introduce talipia until I can keep gold fish alive though...

got new fish from a different company/store.... they offer a 14 day replacement guarantee that the original store did not... These seem to be ok since yesterday... will keep watching and testing water...
Got 10 comets and 1 med size koi