Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The things that happen in a system. My PH has been sitting @ 8.00 since I rebuilt the system on 4th May.
As the Ammonia and Nitrites were rising I needed to lower the PH (for the sake of the fishies health). So I added 500ml of lemon juice. The PH dropped to 7.2 over the next 24 hrs and no other readings changed. Another 24 hrs and the PH is 7.4, which is OK, the Ammonia has stayed at 0.50 but the Nitrites have dropped from 1.00 to 0.00. Nitrates have been 0.00 since the rebuild.
The water is a bit murky after recent rain so I topped up with 120 ltrs (system is 1350 Ltrs)
Other than that all plants are showing new growth. Fish are feeding very actively.
At the moment I am trying to resist the urge to do a water change of any size as the ammonia and Nitrites were increasing. Now I have a situation where the readings are PH 7.4, Ammonia 0.50, Nitrite 0.00, and Nitrate 0.00.
What's the chances that the system has started to reach the end of its initial cycle?

really your ammonia should be zero, but seeing as the nitrites dropped from 1 to zero indicates cycled..............

you brobably had certain colonies going even after the re-build which may be the reason for bizzaro readings. another week should see you settled. if the ammonia bacs (sorry its late and don't want to post the wrong one ) are a bit behind, just lower the feed rate slightly.

Nitrosomonos

One week on and chemically the system is all quiet on the fish front.

Yesterdays readings were PH 7.6 Ammonia 0.00 Nitrites 0.00 and Nitrates 0.00. A few days ago I gave the system a dose of salt to 3ppm due to finding a Goldfish with fin rot and in a hope that it will help in the effort to reduce the algae that has made the water a bit pea soupy.

The winter covers are on so this is stage one in combating the weather and keeping out those pesky heron. Haven't seen one for a few weeks now.
Will do a few other things to insulate the tanks as I get my hands on the materials.

Just checked. The water temps have dropped from 20.0 to 16.0 over the last 48 hours.

A few more pics to date

They won't look that sparse for long

Now it's just the boring waiting game Quietly.. The growbeds almost look like Japanese rock gardens with those river stones.