Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I now have my aquaponics system well under way so I am starting a new thread. Previous thread was http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=13273. In case you want to read back.

Anyhow my system has been up and running for 3 weeks now. It is a bath tub fish tank with a small rectangular 150 L pond as a grow bed. We filled the system with rain water from our rainwater tanks and added a 9 liter bucket of water from my neighbour's pond plus a cap full Maxicrop. Just before week 2 I added some worm tea to try and help the plants stay alive. At week 2 we added 5 gold fish and we are now at week 3. My silverbeet and lettuce are starting to show signs of growth and today I finally got my hands on a test kit and was able to do a first water test.

First Test results:
pH 7.5
Ammonia 0.50ppm
Nitrite slightly more than 0 but less than 0.25
Nitrate 5.0 ppm

Nice to see some Nitrates. I guess that means that the bacteria are slowly building up in the system. I plan to put some more plants into the grow bed this coming week and will test again next weekend. If all is going well and the Ammonia doesn't get too high I plan to add a few more goldfish in 1-2 weeks time.

What do the rest of you think? Am I on track?

Absolutely

remember we love pics!!

Had my first goldfish death this week after I topped up water with 15 liters I had stored in a wheelie bin. The water was water I had used to wash my media with and then set aside for the grit to settle out of it. The fish may have starved to death too there was nothing obviously wrong with it. I have been under feeding them. Will start feeding them properly now and test water again this weekend. Silverbeet and lettuce are growing - they were still very tiny in this picture.

Today's water test

pH 7.5
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 5 ppm
Nitrate 10ppm

Nitrite is pretty high so I am going to back off on feeding the fishies and will top up the system with some extra rain water to dilute the Nitrites and keep the fishies happy. Added a bit of water tonight and will add some more in the morning. Does that sound reasonable?

Another fish death yesterday. I added quite a bit of fresh tank water to the system yesterday. Not sure if this is the right thing to do or not. We are down to 3 goldies out of the original 5 now. Will do water tests again tomorrow.

I have decided my bathtub needs a plug for the plug hole. I had just screwed a fitting over the drain pipe under the bathtub but this leaves a hole that fish food can fall into and fish can't get into the drain hole to retrieve the food.

Now down to 2 fish out of the original 5. Got 18 lettuce seedlings in the grow bed. I expect that the Nitrites are still too high for them. I am only feeding them every second day. They are keen on the food when it appears. Will test the water again today.

Water tests:

7th November

pH 7.2
Ammonia 0.25ppm
Nitrite 5ppm
Nitrate 10ppm

13th November
Running short of time so I just tested Nitrite and Nitrate

Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm

I seem to have stopped killing fish. The two remaining fish seem to look fairly happy and are zipping all over the place.

Is it time to add more fish? Do you think I have cycled now that my Nitrites have spiked and dropped again?

My 18 lettuce seedlings seem to be growing happily.

I think your system is about 6 weeks old now?

Id say go for more fish, Id be surprised if your not fully cycled now.

Thanks Charlie I think 6 weeks is about right. It was 2 weeks running before we added fish and then its been about 4 weeks since then. Two fish can really get up some speed from one end of the bath tub to the other without having to avoid any other fish. Will see if I can get some more fish tomorrow.

5 more goldfish added today

Hi great work. I'll be watching how your setup goes as I will be moving house soon and setting up my own little bathtub kit. Any lessons learnt would be invaluable to me.

Thanks

We ate two salads with leaves from the aquaponics system this week. I also put some radish and beetroot seeds into the grow bed earlier this week. Today there are seed sprouts coming up in the grow bed - radishes I suspect. Looking forward to fresh radishes. All seems to be fine today despite the 39 degree weather yesterday

Growth in the system seems very slow. Radish seeds have sprouted produced two leaves and then not got any bigger for a week. Whereas the seeds in dirt have got larger and gone on to produce 3rd and 4th leaves. There has not been enough growth on the lettuces to have another salad feed since the last posting. Several days ago I added 1 and half cups of worm tea. I have 6 goldfish and have been feeding them once a day. I think I need to up the nutrient levels, either by feeding the fish more or by adding more fish or by doing both. Any advice?

G'day grownathome at this point I'd put your test kit away put the kettel on relax and let your system do it's thing rember good things come to those who wait
don't over feed the fish are you feeding with sinking food if so I'd change to floating food and any food thats left in the tank after an hour after feeding scoop it out if you dont this can kill your fish
hope this helps

I'd like to be able to erase that saying for the human mind and replace it with, "good things come to those who are patient".