Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey All super exicted....I got NITRATES READING!! I know im not cycled yet but u am pumped. This system has been running for 10 days and I got nitrates. I was reading how it took people weeks and even months! Wow the light at the end of the tunnel is so bright lol. My ammonia is still high but I hope it will be coming down soon since my bacteria is showing up. more updates will follow. Thanks for reading.

Awesome job so far. You've got me excited seeing someone else starting from scratch and having success. I constructed my very small scale system yesterday with my kids. I just need to adjust the timing for the flood and drain and start adding seeds. Hope to have as much growth as you have seen. Keep on keeping on!

Thanks Nate for the post. Glad to hear your system is almost there. It was fun building it right . I'm sure your growth is going to be phenomenal. I am having some issues that I am going to be adding to the following update though so happy reading.

Hey all. My growth is still going well. More seeds have sprouted and the celery has taken off nicely. The only issue that I am having is my ammonia and my nitrites. My nitrates are showing but the ammonia and nitrites have hit the roof. I ended up doing a small water change on the system after I found one of the goldfish had died. I figured it shouldn't set me back too much since I do have active bacteria. I hope I can get this under control without too many issues. Thanks for reading. Following are my readings from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My readings tonight, which I will post tomorrow, are post water change so I expect numbers to be drastically different. Thanks for reading Almost forgot. I took some lemon Balm from my moms garden Yesterday and added them to the system. One is pretty advanced and has a huge root system. I did manage to clean the majority of dirt from the roots and it still looked lively today. Maybe I didn't over shock the plant which is one of the things that I have read to expect when transferring plants from dirt to the media bed. Happy Farming!

More pics

Stop feeding, and make sure all of your fish are alive. Sometimes excessive ammonia is due to a dead fish hiding somewhere in your system.

How they still manage to hide when their dead is beyond me...

Cheers Ron

Welcome Drew

And yet they do...

Hi Ron thanks for the reply. I did a fish count and they are all there no dead to be found. I have also not fed them in four days (as soon as i saw the levels getting dangerous). Since the water change the level has gone down a lot but my nitrites and nitrates are still high. The fish still seem lively. I have also added salt to the system (100% natural sea salt) to help a bit. Thanks again.

Hello,
My most recent readings since the water change. Still high in nitrItes and nitrates but the ammonia is down below half of what it was. I have not fed the fish in four days and no dead have been found. Fish seem lively maybe a bit hungry but better than dead i would think. Ph also seemed to have dropped. It be human error because the readings are strange but ill be testing again tonight. Thanks for reading.

Update on water quality

It seems that my PH is dropping down. I am having concerns with the nitrite and nitrate levels. It seems that my nitrates and nitrites have spiked. Should i be concerned about this?? If so can i have some guidance on what to do. The fish have not been fed in 5 days now btw. Thanks.

Put in more plants to use up the nitrates and wait for the system to cycle.

The nitrates are not the concern, the nitrites are. Dilute your test water with some filtered or distilled water to get a more accurate nitrite level.