Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Why are you doing water changes? There is no need since you have no fish. They slow down the process.

If the noise was still a worry for you..then why not buy an inline pump rather than the Laguna submersible that you have...should be quieter in the tank but noisier outside it

Ron, I changed the water to bring all the levels down and therefore give the bacteria that processes the nitrie a little room to breathe .. I have no idea what I'm doing and just went with my guts... The nitrite levels would hit the 5.0 ceiling on my test kit after only a few minutes, and that was diluted 1 part tank water 5 parts fresh!

Anyway, you think I should just leave it? Should I add a little Charlie Carp to get things going again?

Tom, the system is really close to our living room, so I'd have to decide between the fish’s sanity or the humans. I'm struggling to silence the air pump at the moment, thinking of down grading to multiple smaller ones.

Yeah I would choose my own sanity too!
I made a somewhat insulated box for my air pump (35lpm) and that works alright... but I am not close to it either so 'alright' might not be enough

The bacteria don't need room to breathe. They like the ammonia or nitrates. That is what they live for. When you dilute the nutrients, that slows things down, especially if it is tap water with chlorine or chlorimines. I would probably not add more Charlie carp until your numbers come down. Then you want to add some to make sure the bacteria are converting the ammonia quickly.

Yeah I meant bring the nitrite levels down specifically .. It's now just hitting 5.0 after the 5 minutes, so at least I can observe progress over the next while instead of just being off the charts.

I meant to say nitrites. They live for nitrites.

My water temperature is around 8 degrees Celsius. Interestingly my ammonia has gone up from 0.25 to 0.5 a few days after the water was dumped. I've not added anything for well over a month now. There is nothing obvious decomposing in the beds or tank.

It could be chlorimines converting to chlorine and ammonia... Another reason to avoid water changes.

No cloramines here unless they just started adding them. Will look into it, thanks.

Hey there.

I'm hoping that your system starts kicking in soon.
would love another visit and share some seeds

Ammonia is down to 0 and Nitrites have definitely dropped a little, but still between the 2 - 5.0 mark. Nitrates have dropped to between the 0 and 5.0 mark. Lowest temperature I've seen is 5.5 degrees. Should I add a little Charlie Carp and see what happens?

As you can see from the photos below, the Broccoli and Rocket are suffering from lack of nutrients - anything I can do to revive them? Mainly the rocket I'm concerned with, as you actually eat the leaf.

Rocket:

Broccoli:

Lettuce is looking good!:

I don't think you want to add to much only to get it up to .05-1 is this correct?
And some seasol will help - this wont affect the cycle.
Exciting - not long now?

I was hoping to get some fish this weekend. Like I was hoping the weekend before, and the 7 or 8 before that...

I haven't added anything for over a month and a half now .. it's amazing plants can survive with such little nutrients.

I've added 1 cap of Charlie Carp to approx 1500L of water .. will see what it does.