Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Initial Water Test had everything looking okay.


Toady's water test shows that Ammonia is higher and the Nitrates are off the chain. I am sure this will continue to change as the weeks go one and the system stabilizes.



Here are some pics of the finished project. I added a little trellis above my spinach area so they wont burn up this summer. Everything is working well and I am cycling the system about twice an hour right now.






a few early transplants. these happen to be Sweet Peppers and Chili Pepper plants.

FYI - I don't know the water temperature but the ammonia is probably in the toxic range for the fish with a pH that high - don't feed until it comes down (but you probably already knew this).

edit: oops didn't read the earlier post correctly -


sounds like you don't have any fish in yet, if not where is the ammonia coming from ? -

Not sure where it is coming from. I did just put the Marble chips and brick in it the other day. Could be a spike from something that was on them. I will take another test tomorrow. Hopefully it will go down in the coming days.

Did another test today; ph: 7.6, ammonia: .5, nitite: 5.0, nitrate: 160!

Any ideas as to why there would be ammonia in a system with no fish? It is low, but I thought any ammonia could kill fish/plants.

Check the water that you initially filled the system with. Also check it after it's been sitting around for a day or two. I'm not sure I remember right but I think some of the de-chlorinators can either mess with the test or cause the release of ammonia. Decaying material in the system can cause this as well. Watch for cats, you could have the first system cycled on cat pee . It's possible but seems unlikely that it's from the rock

I am thinking of doing a 50% water change. I know the tap water is good and it has been in the system for almost a month. Hoping it is not my container guy said it was used to hold dish soap. But no labels or anything. Is there anything I can add to kill off the ammonia?

I might have spoken too soon. I just ran a test on my tap water and got back; ph: 7.6, ammonia: .5, nitrite/nitrate: 0

Looks like my tap water is pretty nasty. Should I salt it? Or use a dechlorinator?

I was hoping that just running the system I would see the levels dropping. But they seem to be joking tough at .5 on ammonia.

Thanks for any and all help. Btw.. My vegges seem to not care they are getting pretty big!

You're already working on growing the bacteria to take care of the ammonia and I think eventually they'll reach the level needed to do this. Wait though and see if the ammonia keeps going up, having nitrates of 160 is pretty high without adding anything. Find out what the rock in your media bed is while you're investigating and put some in a glass of source water, see if the ammonia goes higher than regular tap water. Your local water supply is required to test the water, see if they have any info and perhaps know of an explanation. While you're at it find out if they use chloramines instead of chlorine.

At the rate this is going, you either won't be able to grow fish or you won't need to or both

I wouldn't add anything to take out the ammonia at this point. You want to have the ammonia to supply nitrates for the plants.

Could also be a problem with the kit but seems like it's working OK to me

It is the same water that I have in my 170 gal fish pond. My gold fish love it and so do my tomatoes.

I will test the rock, it is just white marble chips. There are bricks as well, but they did not have anything on them.

More test to come. Thanks for the help.

Lettuce might be a bit bitter with the high nitrates. I'd tell you to change out some of the water to get the nitrates down but I don't see that it would do any good Hopefully you've planted some nitrate hungry plants that will make quick work of it

Right now I have chili peppers, spinach, Lima beans and squash. Is there a particular type of plant that would like the nitrates more? Guess I really need to study up on my veggies! Lol. I am mouth more of a fish guy.

I wouldn't worry too much about which type of plants just get your grow beds planted up. You just need enough plants to reduce the nitrate levels. I think when the nitrates fall back to lower levels the bitterness in lettuce goes away.

Sweet! Working on that now. Thinking of transplanting a tomato plant or two in it today.

I like the work tables on the end of the grow beds.. good idea!

@ActiveTechnologies I had some extra 2x6 and have already used them several times.

Also, glad to see another "geek" on here. I am a web developer as well.