Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well I never give up. I started in 2011 and have had two failures and one limited success. Mostly because I keep trying to use my fish pond to supply the water and my fish pond was always over stocked. I knew nothing about raising fish or aquaponics in 2011 when I started. I don't know much more now but I think I do so I will try again.

My first system "I have AP setup in Thailand" in the AP Systems Locations part of this forum. Then "Johnra's New/Remodled 2012 System." Located in Members Systems section of this forum.

I also lost almost a year being able to do yard work due to osteoporosis in 2013 - 2014. I could only walk with a cane and watch my wife and mother in law plant seeds.

My new system will be 5 100 liter GB's filled with construction gravel and an 800 liter FT filled to between 500 and 700 liters of water. I will stock with 50 male only fingerlings of Talapia. As they grow I will eat them down to only 25 to 30 to keep in the FT. I love steamed fish.

I purchased a new pump for use in my front yard pretty pond but every one says I got the wrong pump for that pond and since I cannot return it, I plan to try it out in this pond. Hopefully it will work. I should be finished with the plumbing tomorrow and tomorrow or the next day my wife will be home from a trip and can take photo or photos to post.

My pump is a Zushita pump. Flow 1.5 cubic meter per hour and has a 16 meter lift.

Good luck with this new system!

I have to make some adjustments tomorrow on water level in GB's and finding a way to tie the ends of the water line so as not to by accident drain the FT.

I added about 30 pink colored Talapia today. They are called Top Tiem here in Thailand. We will have to remove some as they grow bigger - too many for one small tank.

Sorry - One photo of just a GB I wanted to send but looks like I could not find it and found another one three times. Maybe someday I will learn how to do this. Maybe just too sleepy tonight.

Comments welcome. Anyone having an idea on how to arrange the plumbing, please let me know. This crazy mess is what I came up with all by myself. LOL.

Only lost one fish so far. Fish flipped out of tank and was too far gone when we found it.

I checked water yesterday. Ammonia 0 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, and 7.6 plus on PH. My water in all of my ponds has for the 11 years that I have lived here has always been 7.6 plus. My test kit only goes up to 7.6. Should that concern me or is it normal for some to always have a high PH?

When should this new system cycle and how will I know that it is cycling correctly? This is one part of AP I have never really understood.

31 Oct I added about 30 fingerlings of Talapia. On 3 November I checked the water. All readings were zero. Tomorrow in daylight I plan to check water again.

Yesterday and today I added some very small seedlings of kale to two of the five beds.

The tank is new. The GB's and gravel are re-cycled from my old system. The GB's were rinsed out good as was the gravel. All plumbing re-cycled.
I will post readings tomorrow when I check the water again. So far I have no problems. I just want to know what to expect, what to do, and understand it.

Thank you, Johnra

It depends on how much buffering capacity your top up water has and also on how much nitrification is going on. Watch for iron deficiency.



Tough to say . Since you're using old media from a system that was already cycled and you're not showing any ammonia you may already be cycled - then again you might not be. For now just keep your eyes on the results from your tests. Usually you'll get an ammonia reading that climbs and goes down as it's converted to nitrite. The same thing will happen with the nitrite as it's converted to nitrate. Based on my own experiences with this I suspect your system is already cycled.

Just took readings with test kits. Ammonia color was between .0 and .25, closer to .0

Nitrite 0, PH 7.6 plus, and Nitrate 5.0

Maybe I have cycled already. Thank you Scotty.