Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

IBC tote, one grow bed for now, Yuma, Arizona. No fish yet, but planning to stock soon with Tilapia. I'll post some pics in a few, but first, I'm having some issues with cycling levels. I began a fishless cycle a little more than a month ago (Just added pure ammonia). Only thing in the grow bed to start was some adult basil plants. Growbed is 50/50 scoria (below) and expanded clay pebble (Top). Ammonia levels have dissipated to almost zero, Nitrates are at about 20-40 ppm...problem is, I can't seem to get the Nitrite level down or the pH. Nitrite is hovering around 2.0 ppm and the pH is stubborn at 8.2. I've tried some "pH Decrease" by Top Fin for the last few days, but no success yet.

About 2-3 weeks ago I introduced seedlings (Tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, Broccoli) to the growbed and they seem to be doing well. My questions are:

1. With nitrites still that high, should I wait to introduce Tilapia?
2. If so, how long until nitrites come down?
3. Should I do something different to lower the pH?

Thank you,
TSD

Early pic of system.

nice system TSD!

what did you use for covering the outside of the fish tank?

as for fish. My advice is to wait until the nitrites are gone and the system is fully cycled.
Do you have access to anyone elses mature system and or fish tank? if so get some of their bio filtration media and "seed" your system. that may help your cycle speed up.

Thank you! The covering is garden shade mesh doubled over. (Home Depot).

I went to pet smart and asked for some of their media from established aquariums and put these rocks in my tank hoping to speed up the cycling...guess it wasn't good enough.