Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Actually you're right and I'm wrong. I forgot that you used urea when I wrote my answer. Since you've been using urea in this the breakdown to ammonia might not take that long. On the other hand I don't know how long it will take so watch for the ammonia spike. I think that seeing the ammonia and nitrite levels fall to zero after the ammonia spike (a day or two) is the indicator your cycled in this case (the faster the drop the better).

There hasnt been much of ammonia spike yet, so I guess this part is working well. The nitrates are still present, I am not sure how much though. With naked eye I would say around 3ppm, but on photo it looks more like 1ppm. The nitrates fell from 20 to 8 in just 24 hours are the plant consuming that much?

Other figures:

Ammonia: 0,2
Nitrite: 3???
Nitrate: 8
Ph: 8,2
Temp: 14

Can't tell on the nitrite - I'm not sure the color came through right. As far as the nitrates, depending on the plants you have, yep they can take that much and then some.

I did another try, added UREA the next day nitrites reached 5 ppm but in 48 hours they went to 0,2 PPM. So I think it is time for fish. The PH also dropped to 8.

Any suggestion how to introduce the fish to my system ie. match the PH?

I am thinking to transport them in portable cooler. I will use one for 5 fish and add a tablet of oxygen. The transport will be around 3 hours. Good plan?

As far as the transport, I'd ask the person you're buying them from. I use a Harbor Freight inverter with a car cigarette lighter plug hooked up to an air pump. Round containers are usually better than square because the fish don't get stuck in a corner and I've been told that less maneuvering space is a good thing because it's harder to get going where they can hurt themselves. Having said all that I've used rectangular containers and they work.

As far as the pH is concerned just introduce small quantities of your system water into the fish water gradually until the pH is close (0.4 pH units if you measure it, I usually don't). I'd keep the fish container out of the sun to reduce temperature fluctuations during this time.

Ahh one milestone

The fish is happy at its new home.

I transported them in rectangular cooling boxes and the the guy that sold them to me said it shouldnt be a problem. He said they are carps so no problem

I added one tablet of oxygen tablets to each box and off we went. The total time was a bit less than 3 hours and I check them half way through and they looked fine.

When home, the temperature was really close and PH also 7,6 - 8,1 and 18,1 - 17,4, so I added small amounts of water for about 10 minutes and than put them into FT.

They looked happy and started exploring around, well most of them were at the bottom talking to each other what a nice trip it was

I closed the lid and will let them relax until tomorrow, I will also feed them tomorrow.

A few photos:

Good for you . Glad it all went smoothly.

The fish looks good 24 hours later, they are shy and most of them refuse to feed, some do though.

I also got the first attack of (what I think) are aphids. I will prepare some nettle tea and spray my plants tomorrow, hope it will help.

Some photos of aphids, please correct me if they are something else.

Yup, those are aphids all right.

Ok the story goes on.

Fighting with aphids with nettle tea.

One fish lost. Found it next to FT. Either she jumped out (I left the lid open ) or she got sucked up to filer and jumped out from there. Anyway 9 remain.

The test are showing:

Ammonia: 0,15
Nitrite: 0,2
Nitrate: 4
Ph: 7,9
Temp: 17,5

Nitrates are still very low I try to feed them 3 times a day. Ph is looking better and better, slowly droping on it own.

Don't be concerned about your nitrates being low. The plants use the nitrates so even though more are being created the number won't necessarily go up. Many people run systems where the nitrates are zero but the plants are doing fine. The fact that you are showing any nitrates indicates you have more than enough.

The thing to watch is the ammonia and nitrites. Your numbers look fine, seeing a trace of ammonia is pretty common but I'd see if the ammonia and nitrites will go to zero if you reduce or stop the feeding for a day. The bacteria won't die off and neither will the fish.

Ok, will do this tomorrow. 24 hours no food.

What is the main idea behind this test? I assume ammonia and nitrites should fall without fish supplying it. Could there be any other source?

I did the test with no fish food for a day and it gave me the following results:

Ammonia: 0,15
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 1
Ph: 7,9
Temp: 16

After this I was feeding the fish 3 times a day (have 8 of them left) and today the results are:

Ammonia: 0,1
Nitrite: 0,5
Nitrate: 5
Ph: 7,8
Temp: 17,5

What do you think about nitrites? They seems quite high. Will feed the fish only twice today and see what will happen tomorrow.

I also bought water hardness test.

First test:
GH: 12
KH: 5

Not sure if this is accurate as I was doing it for the first time. From what I was reading gh 12 seems to be a good buffer.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Just trying to get an handle on whether the bacteria have built up enough numbers.

I'd stop feeding to bring down the nitrites. I would salt to 1ppt with uniodized salt that doesn't have any anti-caking agents added. This should help the fish with the nitrites and helps them build a slime coat. Once the nitrites are down then resume feeding but at slightly lower amounts of food.

It looks like your bacteria are doing OK but you'll still need to be careful.

Ok, noted.

What is the acceptable level of nitrites anyway?