Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've never had any luck growing spinach in my ap. it gets to 4 leaves, stalls or dies.

Chard/ Silver beet grows like a weed though.

Such a shame. I didn't realize spinach wouldn't like the AP system.

Ahhh well. Maybe I'll use that GB to experiment with growing from seed...

Do beans do ok in AP?

Are you sure the water is getting to the spinach roots?

Yeah - the gravel isn't drying out.

Ok.... I understand cycling is a natural process prone to variables...

But now I'm just totally confused.

What are you confused about?

Looks like the ammonia and nitrite have gone down as the bacteria processed it?

Sorry - still learning. I thought it would have showed the ammonia/nitrite spike for a bit longer

Ok so do I just keep adding wee and wait and see if I have another ammonia and nitrite spike?

Do I only consider the system to be "cycled" and safe for fish once there is consistently no ammonia and or nitrite spikes?

I think Gunagulla's comment a little while ago is the key... being "cycled" is best understood as your system having the capacity to cope with whatever ammonia load your fish (or humonia) is putting on it at that time.

If you start with a low stocking level, you're probably adequately cycled - and you can always stop feeding for a little while if you get an ammonia or nitrite spike.

I added my fish after about two weeks of cycling and had no problems.

I've only cycled two tanks so not ready to write a textbook - but I doubt you need to be repeatedly/frequently adding humonia. The relevant bacteria can live without sustenance for at least a week or two (I've seen posts claiming months). If you keep adding humonia and you don't have enough plants, you're going to start with an off the scale nitrate reading - though my experience has been that this isn't as big a problem as others sometimes report it to be.

I say take a big breath - then get those 10 silver perch in there!

Thanks Dave.

We'll see how we go for the rest of the week. I'm pretty sure that the system could cope with 5 SP fingerlings in each tank.

I guess it would have been easier to gauge cycling process with man-made ammonia as my "humonia" donations have been rather sporadic. Hubby is now the only donor as myself and the kids are on antibiotics for chest infections.

Understood

I was going to go the humonia route but was told that nothing out of my system would ever be eaten if I did. If you need to cycle a system again in the future (because aquaponics can become a constant search for bigger and better), have a look on ebay for ammonia. I found someone who was supplying the aquarium crowd with it. Small bottles were pretty cheap.

good luck on the weekend.

You be the judge!


Humonia wont put anyone off your produce if you dont tell them about it!

5 SP in each tank will be no problem at all right now. Why so few fish? I think you could easily stock quite a few more than that.

I would say Dave is on the money.

You have enough bacteria to cope with the ammonia you are adding. 10 fingerlings will be enough to keep it all ticking over. As you add more fish and they get bigger your bacteria will multiply to cope.
The only thing to watch out for is adding a large amount of fish at one time, then you need to test the water regularly and reduce feed if the ammonia or nitrite start to spike.

Not sure what the issue is with your spinach, mine are growing. But seem to be going to seed quickly on the ones I have harvested a lot of leaves from?

Starting with 10 silver perch is very conservative - as Gunagulla indicates above.

From memory, I started out with 50 x 5 cm silver perch fingerlings in a 1000 L tank and not enough grow bed... only about 300 L of wet media. Only saw traces of ammonia after that from memory... certainly nothing worrying. So don't feel you need to keep adding fingerlings in lots of 10.

This is the cover I've devised for FT#2. It's not 100% child-proof. But the first line of defense in regards to child-proofing will be simply locking the shed doors.

Constructed using 20mm metric blue poly pipe and greenhouse plastic.

I still have to make the access hatch to allow me to feed fish etc (That's why there's a panel missing.)

Cover is held down using and idea stolen from our trampoline - hair elastics and aluminium carribiners with a lock that should slow down a toddler hell bent on swimming with the fishes.

The anchor for the lid is a poly pipe girdle sitting in one of the tanks' corrugations.

I made the lid domed to help with condensation run off and also because kids are less like to try to stand/walk on a domed surface rather than a flat one.