Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

okay...so it is week 6, my 6 little goldfish are in and spme of my veggis are ready to eat. I wanted to check on with y'all on my readings...

Ft:450L
GB: 200L

pH: 7.6
Nitrates: 5
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 1

im thinking everything is pretty good, perhaps if it gets hotter the nitritesay become a problem? Water temp today is lower than it has been over the past week because it was freezing here last night but its been sitting at about 23c.

will upload a pic

thanks
A

Looks good from the figures. Nitrites are a touch high but it's a young system. If it moves up or doesn't drop in the next couple of weeks, use some pool salt to 1ppt to help the fish. (for 450L, 1ppt is 0.45kg of salt - Bunnings has it for about $7 for 20kg but that might be overkill for you) If it was me I'd probably salt anyway - can't hurt plants or fish to be at 1ppt. and will keep the fish healthier if your nitrites take time to come down.

Other than that, how does it feel to have ready-to-eats 6 weeks after 'planting'? What veggies are ready?

Pic from this morning

Thanks Journeyman...I'll "assault" the system

So far its just the lettuce and the bok choi that is ready but everything grows so damn quickly!!! I laughed when I read the germination times on the seed packets because I blew them out the window!

I LOVE AP!!!

Hi Amanda, nice going so far!

Did you cycle with another ammonia source other than fish?... I only ask because your Nitrites and Nitrates seem high for 6 little goldfish in 450L of water and with nearly a square metre of fully planted GB.

My kids little single blue barrel system also has 6-7 (it varies) x 8-10cm Shubunkin goldfish in only 60-70L of water and with 50L of gravel filled GB, only about 0.5sqm, which is normally always full of lettuce, bok-choy etc... and I never got Nitrite readings anywhere near 1.0ppm after the fish went in... and never get Nitrate readings, it's always 0.0

Salting to 1 ppt , as journeyman said would be good, so would getting an extra air source in the FT atm.
Also I would make a cover to exclude a lot of light from the FT. We are running into summer and you could have an algae problem looming.

Don't overfeed the fish, no matter how hard they try to convince you, and only take leaves off the leafy veg ie don't pull the whole plant up.

Looks great Amanda. No need to read germination rates anymore

Yeah its crazy hey!!