Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

[album]We just have a small garden aquaponics gives us the chance to grow veg ,surprizing what you can do with a small space .bought hydroton to improve the dry zone ,

you should put plants in straight away
thats what those nitrates in red are for

Might be a misunderstanding ,it is nitrites showing red not nitrates ,but would you recommend still planting the grow bed? ,seem to different schools of thought on this, the ammonia test kit arrives Friday ,so will know more as to what's going on ,hopefully the ammonia is subsiding .

Reference I have used the top of the I B C lid that I cut out to make F.T. To protect the F.T. The middle allows water to flow through ,it's black so helps to keep F.T. warm ,also protects against
algae growth ,cycling at the moment .

??? nitrite? red? I thought it only went from blue to purple

Yes put plants in straight away.

Are you still adding ammonia?

Hi .I am not adding ammonia ,simply I don't know the levels ,waiting for test kit to arrive Friday tomorrow ,sorry about the colour 0.5mg/1 nitrite shows purple - 2mg/1 shows a deep purple , ,so what dose that mean ,hopefully I am still on track ,thanks for information will put plants in straight away. Could you give me more information on ammonia ,in respect of nitrites.

As long as you don't have any fish in the tank ammonia and nitrites aren't going to be a problem, as Jay says you should throw some plants in the system. You can add ammonia (natural or otherwise) and when you get your test kit you will be more able to judge what needs to be added next and how far off cycled you are. If you lose the plants it's no real loss, as you get closer to cycled you can add the fish but make sure your ammonia / nitrite levels are around what they should be.

Hi nice to hear from you .I have planted geraniums in the new system ,have used hydroton 50 litres ,that have been colonised from the old system , hopefully that will make a difference . answering question no fish in tank.

Well I have taken your advice and planted up ,I had a few geraniums so have planted those ,also sprinkled cress seed into grow bed ,no fish in tank ,,try and find new lettuce plants wash dirt off and plant ,not sure using seaweed extract in system ,certainly not a quart?

reference .Bought 150 litres of hydroton pellets ,that give me two inches for top of grow bed to create the dry zones ,washed hydroton over the weekend, and installed, acquired new water butt ,-plan to use rain water for top ups. insulated fish surround seem to work maintaining temperatures ,one degree difference between greenhouse and fish surround .In the autumn plan to heat greenhouse using propane gas heater ,heater carries catalyst producing carbon dioxide ,good for plants ,.Just waiting to cycle system ,planted geraniums from the original aquaponics system ,they carry there own colonized hydroton ,so will help with new system ,just reading up on cycling the system ,very interesting subject ,all the different names of bacteria ,how to cycle etc. .The picture shows the small garden we have ,just as well all last year spent so much time building A.P system has been well worth it ,in the summer will build a pipe system to grow strawberry's also ,over winter plants. the other picture shows equipment needed to run Aquaponics system ,good to drill holes in a large plastic pot to help clean syphon's ,vacuum to clean sub tank/fish tank ,grow beds greenhouse etc. built a filter idea from Rob Bob works very well besides aerating sub tank,. on I go waiting for test kit to arrive .

Your insulated fish tank and greenhouse will help with retaining warmth in winter, are the pipes from the ft to the gh insulated as well?, might not make much difference but you've done a very thorough job with the rest of it I put about two caps full of Seasol into my sump tank two or three times a week for the first month, my system holds around 2300ltr water, and I've always had quite high nitrates (80-160ppm), but my pH is still a bit high so I don't think the plants are taking up as much nitrates as they could be. Good to hear you've started planting.

Hi .The pipes from green house to fish tank need lagging, ammonia test kit arrived to day ammonia reading show light yellow about 0.1mm ,so have added half the amount ,take reading in a few hours time .The nitrite shows .4mgi,nitrate shows omg1 .Have planted strawberry's , lettuce ,geraniums from original aquaponics system, I don't have Seasol ,but do have seaweed extract ,might be idea to try?

From the Seasol web site:
Seasol is made from two species of seaweed - Bull Kelp (Durvillaea potatorum) and Knotted Kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum). It is not, by definition, a fertiliser (as it contains only marginal nitrogen and phosphorus levels), however it is a dynamic plant tonic which improves the root system and increases the reproductive capacity, thereby increasing the number of flowers per plant as well as the flowering season.

I don't know if Seaweed extract is the same thing, you might need to check or maybe another member can help.

Yea, it is seaweed extract. Just make sure that it does not have ammonia in it too. You don't want to overdo your ammonia.

.The product is Maxicrop ,the other product is a seaweed extract from Shropshire ,paramount to the same .I will check ammonia levels this morning ,yesterday they read low ,so added half amount of ammonia ,just waiting for readout ,might add maxi crop first ,check ammonia levels ,then add say half a cup of Maxi crop.