Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Quick questions for anyone paying attention--

1. Does it really matter where the bacteria exist in a system if the entire thing turns itself 1.5-2 times per hour? My larger growbeds are at the end, and I imagine that's where most of my bacteria live.


2. Here are my first test levels-

PH-- 7.5 (I have goldfish, so this seems good?)
Ammonia-- .2 PPM
Nitrite-- .1 ppm
Nitrate-- 0


Thoughts? Anyone have good reference for ideal levels in AP, or advice for how to fix mine?

Seems like things are ok. Haven't lost a fish in a while. Water is crystal clear. Some plants are growing well, others seem unsure, but I've transplanted a few of them like 4 times already, so that may have something to do with it.

The bacteria are going to live throughout your system. So I guess it does not really matter. Where there is a surface, they will live. More surface area makes for more bacteria. Hence the popularity with media beds. They are not going to be washed away unless you are using a pressure washer.

Cool cool. Good to know.

I have about 25 fish, minnows and feeder goldies. Most are around an inch.

I've been feeding around once every two days with a mix of fish flakes and standard pond food.

Should I sort of just be waiting to see what happens now?

Ideal levels would be for the pH to remain stable somewhere between 5-7.2 but since most people's test kits only read down to 6, it is usually recommended not to let your pH fall much below 6.5 because if it gets down to 6 you have no idea how low it really is.

Ammonia, ideally would be 0 ppm once the system is fully cycled up. (or essentially unreadable because it gets converted fast enough.)
Nitrite, Ideally would be 0 ppm once the system is fully cycled up. (or essentially unreadable because it gets converted fast enough.)

Nitrate, Somewhere between 0-500 ppm. Basically if your plants seem happy and growing well and not showing signs of nitrogen deficiency, then you probably have enough even if it is reading 0 ppm. If your nitrate is reading low AND your plants are showing signs of nitrogen deficiency, perhaps you need to feed your fish more or better food or higher protein feed. Ornamental food and pond food are often designed for ornamental ponds where people don't want to worry about doing water changes so much so the feed is designed to minimize that and therefore doesn't provide a lot of nutrients to grow plants (see our goals are a bit different than ornamental fish keepers.)

But right now you are still in the early days with your system so it is more important to monitor water quality while increasing your fish feed to make sure you don't cause High ammonia or nitrite spikes that could kill your fish.

Great, thanks.

I'm feeding a bit more today, including some lettuce and papaya. They dabbled.

I feel like the plants are growing slowly, but I'm looking at them every 12 minutes so that might be why...

LOL something about a watched pot?

Haha. Sounds about right.

Gave my fish some chicken last night along with some home grown mango. They seemed to like it. Things eat better than some of my friends...

Anyway, I've run into another problem. I didn't put an overflow on my pond, and rain is kicking my butt since the growbeds are accumulating water and shipping it all to the pond

I live in New Orleans which is flat as can be, making a standard overflow pipe hard to install after the fact, but made harder by there not being anywhere even slightly lower on my property to drain the water.

Is there another solution for a small pond? I've been manually lowering the water level so far whenever I see it's really high, using excess water for my surrounding soil-based plants, but that's not a long term fix.

When a tropical storm or even just a day of heavy rain hits, I'm pretty sure I'll see my fish floating by my window.

Iny my head I picture a small pump that sits right at my peak water level, and whenever it gets triggered by rising water it turns on automatically.

I don't suppose they make that for 19.95, eh?

Sounds like a bilge pump on a float switch to me...

Awesome. Thanks. I was only seeing sump pumps and they seem a bit overpowered for my needs.