Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ive read and read (but as sure as god made little green apples) not in the right place
what are the ideal PH, Amonia, nitrites and nitrates supposed to be.?

today as per last month

PH 8.2
Am ,.25
Nitrite .0
Nitrate .2

For a beginner how are we doing?

Ideal would probably be -

PH 6.0 - 7.0 (but 6.0 could be lower with the API test kit so you have to watch this). Good would be 7.0 to 7.6. High would be 7.6 and up. Low would be anything under 6 and your filter may crash.
Am .0
Nitrite .0
Nitrate - this could even be zero as long as your plants are getting enough but showing some is OK. If it's going up you need more plants.

Your doing OK but the ammonia could be in the toxic levels, it depends on the water temperature -
http://ibcofaquaponics.com/information/tables-and-charts/

Like Scotty says that 0.25ppm Ammonia needs watching, and is probably just one or 2 heavy days of feeding away from being toxic, and would be now if the weather warmed up quickly. I'd ease off on the feeding a bit until your bacterial colonies build up a bit more, and try to get that pH down into the low-mid 7s if you can.
What is your water temp at 3 or 4pm?

It is an extra expense, but IMO a decent quality pH meter (usually includes a thermometer too) is worth getting. Its faster and less messy, not to mention a lot more accurate, over a wider range of pH.

Both the PH and amonia in fact all the 4 have been stable over the past month, goldies about 40 swimming happily in bottom of IBC FT
Temperature ?? the outside air is 12* Celcius

I have the test kitthat nearly everyone has with the addition of attached PH tester

I have the same pH meter and found it to be accurate Tonzz

If all 4 (PH, Ammonia, Nitrites and nitrates) have all been stable ( the same readings over the past month) but the PH and ammonia are both high how do I redeem this, partial water change ? or what?

water out of the tap has a PH of 7.8 water temp 12* Celcius

If your bacterial colony is properly established and you dont have limestone or similar carbonate rock in the GBs, then the pH should be coming down naturally. Easing off on the feeding for a day or 2 should eliminate the NH3, and if it doesn't, then you don't have enough bacteria, and perhaps there is accumulated food or perhaps a dead fish somewhere producing NH3 all the time.

Where to go from here?.................
* All gravel in GB's is S/H recycled from a friends system, they are moving house and offered this to me, their system was working great for several years, although turned off a year ago.
* We added gravel and plants back in late June and started pumping water through system adding cap of Charlie Carp each week. discribed in members sytems Tonz Thing
1st chemical test 8th July
PH 7.9
Am .25
Nitrites .0
Nitrates .2

Thought this was OK so added 50 feeder fish

now every test Ive done since has been

PH 8.2
Am .25
Rites .0
Rates .2

Do I add hydrocloric acid ? if so how much? what damage can I expect to the fish?

water temp 12*celcius
there are no dead fish caught in system of dead plants around.

Have done partial water change 200 L added .5ml of hydrocloric acid and nothings changed AAAHHHH!!!
what the hell

What test kit are you using to measure Nitrates at 0.2ppm?
What sort of gravel is it? Have you tested any with HCl to see if it bubbles?

Your water temp seems remarkably constant, even my big buried system varies by a few degrees over a couple of days, and a degree or more every 12 hours.

0.5ml of HCl is too small an amount to have any effect, unless you have a miniscule system.

Gunagulla

thanks for your advice....coming

* test kit is a API test kit, although was used when I got it.
* Gravel?... Iam guessing its plain scoria, again it had been in someone else system, pic attached (with advertising
* temp yes it does vary about 1 degrees over 24 hours.
* HCI did wrong calculations, at least I did it the safe way. I now think it should have been 2mls.

System is

1000L FT,
3 x 300L GB's
400L ST
200L blue barrel plus approx 10 M of horizontal strawberry tubes

As there are fish in the system I wouldn’t add any acid, directly into your system.

High water pH is usually caused by high carbonate levels, which would require a LOT of acid to be added to have a permanent effect. With fish in the system you don't want to change the pH by more than 0.3 in any 24hr period, so adding small, fish safe amounts of acid to a system with high carbonate levels only causes a very short term (a few hours) drop in pH, which then bounces back up to its original level… These pH bounces are not good for any fish in the system!

The best course of action is treating any top-up water with Hydrochloric acid to a pH of 6.0 and maintain it there for 24hrs before adding it into the main system. This will consume most of the carbonates in the water so you’re not constantly topping the system up with more.

If you aren’t adding much top-up water (ie: winter) then you can remove some of the system water (10% max) into a clean drum, treat it in the same way as mentioned above, then add it back into the system in 3 or 4 stages over a few hours. If you do this every few days you will eventually reduce the carbonate level in the system to the point where the natural acids being produced by the Nitrification process can overcome the remainder.

...and you don't need to be doing water changes. If the system is cycled and you still have constant Ammonia readings then you are overstocked (or there is another Ammonia source, ie: left over feed etc) and water changes won't achieve anything, unless you are willing to do them every few days on a permanent basis.

If I read it correctly you have a total of 50 goldies in the system, but what is the total volume of WET gravel in your system?... and are you still adding Charlie Carp on a regular basis?... because it has a high Ammonia content.

Mr Damage to the rescue....

thank you will do water changes that way instead of dumping some and putting new freash tap water in.

wet gravel..... well grow beds @ 1100mm x 900mm x 270mm high = .270 x 3 = .81 cubic meters = ? Litres

That's about 265L per GB, but is that the total gravel volume, or wet gravel volume?... Most people set their standpipes so the max flooded water level in the gravel is about 40-50mm below the surface. What is your max flooded depth in the gravel?

bummer your right. forgot that....

well grow beds @ 1100mm x 900mm x 240mm high = ..2376 average .230 x 3 = .690 cub meter