Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

OK thanks because I would have used Epson salt haha

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I'm not feeding at the moment I'll start back up when the levels go down

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My levels today are
ph 6.0 or lower
Amonnia 2.0 ppm
Nitrites 5ppm or higher
Nitrates 80ppm
I'm going to install a bio filter next week
Or maybe just add another grow bed you guys have any recommendations.



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You now have nitrates so you should have bacteria and the system just needs to find it balance.
(at which time the nitrites should never get too much unless you over stock or over feed or over fertilise)

In another post you mention algae ? That is another sign you are getting excessive nutrients.

Three primary questions:

#1 Do you have plants in your grow bed ? you need to have something using the nitrates

#2 how many is a few koi ? (and how big is you fish tank - you don't say and it is important for us to know)

#3 are you adding anything to your system or to plants ?


A couple of koi should not be overloading your system. Too many koi would......

normally you fish cycle with just a couple of fish, and koi/goldfish don't need feeding every day (and stopped for long periods if ammonia gets up). ** Are you adding anything else ? **

I gather the fish survived their 4th June ordeal ? so really better to just hang on rather than trying to do too much, you simply end up constantly throwing the system out of balance by mucking around with it.

You don't need a biofilter - by all means add another grow bed (which is a bio filter anyway).
But what you really want is some larger plants using the nitrates.

you are in summer with warmer weather so the bacteria population will adjust pretty quickly.

(1) and stop feeding your fish...... just a minimal feed every few days with a low protein food)
(2) and don't add anything else to your system....definitely nothing with nitrogen in it.

3 small Plecostomus and 5 koi but I did have too many fish a few weeks ago I originally had 10 feeders in and my brother had added all the fish I have now . I should have taken the fish out sooner but I waited til last week. it got bad.

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I have about 15 heads of green leaf lettuce still little seedlings I just bought some basil and cucumber yesterday and my about 10 cilantro plans are starting to sprout

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oops my edits and your post crossed - online at same time

how big is your fish tank ???

keep in mind that you can only increase ammonia/nitrates if you add something
basically limited to fish food or plant feed etc. - external inputs.

really need to know how big your fish tank is. For cycling 5 Koi would be not many in a 2000L system, few too many in an IBC and way too many for anything smaller. The idea is to gently creep up on the cycling with the veg growing along at same time rather than hit it with an overdose.

the other way to drop nitrates (given you are in summer) is to take out a decent watering can full every day (10-20 Litres, 5 Gal or so I guess) and use it to water pot plants or something. Have a top up supply of equal volume of gassed water that has sat for 24 hours. This is about right for an IBC sized system - may have to adjust to suite your volume.

else do something like a dutch bucket (bato bucket) that allows you to temporarily tack on some nutrient sucking mature plant in it till your vegies get on top of things.

Wow I'm only running a 55 gallon drum as my tank so I need to get rid of some fish.

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ah pictures help a lot.

not so bad as your fish are pretty small but definitely don't add any more as they will be heaps as they get larger.
Main issue is you dont have enough leaf area (ie. green veg) at present but will be OK in the near future. Cos lettuce (by looks) will grow well and they thrive under high nitrates.

In your small system you should add the other grow bed you talked about.
Small systems need lot more media buffer than larger ones as the fish tank volume is small and things can move faster than a large volume system.

I would do a smaller daily change of around 5-10L (guess that is 2-5 Gal) as it is smaller than an IBC.
That will not change you water much but allow some gradual reduction in net nitrogen.

consider the dutch bucket/bato bucket planted with something larger.
probably just a temp thing until you get you veg planting and harvesting cycle under way.
you never want a situation where you take all your veg out at once in a small system.

and keep the fish on a tight feeding regime until net nitrogen drops.
Feed once every couple days - maybe even use some veg based flakes which will keep them ticking but not generate as much ammonia.

[edit] your water looks pretty clear as well. No worries there ATM.

I kinda just throw the seeds in there and let them go it's been working pretty well. I'm working on a green house it'll be done next week and then I'm going to add 4 half barrels let that run for a month or two then add an IBC tank and 4 half barrels and some towers or RFT

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your few little guys will go fine in an IBC FT (presume that is intention - is what I would do).

Good news is for any expansion you wont need to go through the full cycling per sei but you still have to give the system a couple weeks to get the bacteria population in balance. So just plan initially on taking your little guys across along with their water - no worries about media, the water will have enough bacteria in it and keeping basically same water will keep the fish happy as well. If you hook up your existing media it will help as well - else it will have heaps of bacteria for restarting the existing fish drum with some new fish. [sound like you have some spare orphan fishes looking for a home anyway]

only once the system is really well settled and your veg under way could/should you consider pushing your fish numbers up. First go 10-15 and then ultimately something like 15-20 for an IBC.

Thank you dlf that's some helpful info I always appreciate the help. Are there some plants you recommend for a immature system?

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cos lettuce is good (which you have) as they get nice big leaves and thrive on nitrates.

anything leafy - nitrates suit leafy greens.
celery goes beserk but I wouldn't be putting that in your little beds - maybe a ducth/bato bucket.
some AP'ers have a good run with cucumbers - they are heavy feeders and like water (provided you can get them to fruit).

tomatoes grow good and feed a lot but sometimes you don't get much fruit as the plant goes beserk using nitrates to grow leaves. Again bato/buckets is my preferred for tomatoes - they work well for me and can easily be dosed with other necessary trace elements/seaweed extract/blood&bone (they need potassium).
(see threads viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23861 and viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26030 for some ideas - or you can use pots in a trough/gutter as a variant. )