Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The bacteria will be fine for now just wait it out a bit longer and your nitrites will start coming down.



Don't be concerned about the Nitrates just wait for the Nitrites to come down

A product called DuraSkrim. It's 20mil polyethylene film that's fiberglass reinforced. Produce is organic certifiable. I backed it with a concrete product called Hardie board, just for strength between joists.

Scotty- must have missed typed on my phone. Nitrite drop is definitely what I'm anticipating and was trying to ask about.

It's tough to predict how long it will take to cycle but probably they will start dropping within the next few days to about a week. Sometimes cycling does stall out though. How long ago did you start trying to cycle the system?

Scotty,
Today is day #8 of water being in the system. I inoculated the system with a purge dosing as well as a follow up dosing of a highly recommended "bacteria in a bottle" product call Microbe Life Nite Out II- containing select strains of Nitrosomonas, Nitrospira and Nitrobacter. It really seems to have expedited cycling. I'm sure you're familiar with it.

I dosed ammonia up to 4ppm (once a day) for days 1-6, and system has consumed 4ppm ammonia in the last 36hrs. Nitrites have been high since about 4, off the charts for 3 days now.

I have been trying to cater temperature and ph to bacteria colonization.

Best,
Andrew

Seems to be blazing along. Actually I've never used any of these products and up until the last couple of years they were a major topic of discussion on the forum because many didn't contain the bacteria that you'd want in the long haul for cycling. There were also questions about preservation of the bacteria in a usable form on a store shelf over long periods. I think there have been some new products on the market that do a better job along these lines but I haven't looked into them and you'd need a lab to really tell if they deliver the type of bacteria they claim . The bacteria listed in your product are what you want so as long as it delivers, your golden

At this rate you're probably just 2 or 3 days from seeing the nitrites tumble. When you see the nitrites start to fall you can give it another small dose of ammonia then wait for the ammonia and nitrites to disappear. They should disappear pretty rapidly, hopefully within 24 hours although the nitrites may take a bit longer. Before you put the fish in I would recommend salting to 1 PPT for Nitrites (1KG per 1000L or 1gm per L). this helps the fish deal with any nitrites that aren't removed as fast as they should be and helps the fish build a slime coat - cheap insurance against nitrite poisoning and stress. The only down side to this is that strawberries don't much care for the salt, even at this low level. Doesn't seem to affect any other plants that I've noticed.

Cheers

Edit: When you add the fish you may see a spike in ammonia or nitrite so be prepared to withhold the feed if necessary.

Scotty,
thanks for all the input. It is blazing along and working as expected. This brand is recommended by a popular Colorado based aquaponics retailer. We are already starting to hit our hot season here in Texas, so I needed to get system up and going ASAP.

Once nitrites tumble, what is a "small dose" of ammonia that system should process within 24hrs? 2ppm? "Process" being from ammonia -> nitrate.

Shoot for 1 ppm, it's just a wake up call, to see that the bacteria that break down ammonia are active and nothings happened to them.

Check your intended stocking levels against the amount of filtration capacity you have, if you haven't already figured this out. This is one measure -

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6646

If you run into ammonia problems here's a link to help you figure out if the ammonia is toxic or not -

http://ibcofaquaponics.com/information/tables-and-charts/

The toxicity varies by pH and Temp. The higher both are the more toxic the ammonia.

I think your setup is really neat. Looks very efficient. I am working on a system using barrels and an old bath tub.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks H20.
I appreciate it!

If on PC, try using something like IrfanView - free download. Or other similat ones.

has a GUI-batch mode so you can simply just select photos and send them to a new APfourm folder automatically at desired output resolution.

then load to forum from there.

Thanks Darren.

What are thoughts about bacteria efficiency in flood/drain vs constant flood? Could I pull my bell siphons, and just run constant flood to help the bacteria thrive?

People all have their opinions but if there is a study that's been done I'm not aware of it

Both ways work and appear to be comparable in some systems - see the BYAP Trials Thread where three systems were run side by side for a year.

I know some people believe that running CF helps with getting the bacteria established since you're not knocking them off every time you flush the bed.

Cheers

Update:

Nitrites dropped! Cycling system took 1 day shy of 3 weeks. I feel my water temp (average 70F/21C) inhibited optimal cycling a bit. Nitrites dropped to 0, then I dosed 2ppm ammonia- all of which was converted to nitrate in less than 20hrs. So, I added fish.

50 Hybrid Striped Bass (5"-8"/12cm-20cm) have now been in system over 48hrs. They seem to be loving life. Zero losses so far. Very happy and healthy. They aren't eating great yet. They spit the food out and wait for it to soften up a bit. Then they eat it. I think their transition to my tank, along with a new food has put them off a bit. I won't start to panic for another couple days.

My plants still aren't thrilled. I attribute that to my temporarily high pH. I'm hoping nitric acid production combats high pH, once I really start feeding the fish and producing ammonia.

The fish!

Nice start