Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys,

This is a great resource forum but I'm finding it a bit overwhelming. I have done hydroponics for 8 years now and decided to change one of the beds to Aquaponic. Hydroponics is so forgiving.

I made a simple system with a 250L fish tank, pump up to the grow bed of 1200 x 600 x 125mm with a bell siphon constantly circulating. I have put some plants in and they are looking really good. I started with a few leafy greens. I started cycling and put some bio starter in there and ran it for a day or two. I was informed that if I used bio starter i should be able to put the fish straight in. I ended up putting in 5 Jade Perch.

I worked out they are shy things and it was difficult to work out if they were eating or not, but by the look of it they were not as there was still floating pellets. I put some lettuce in there and they have eaten half of that. I feel the fish are probably a bit stressed as they would of come out of a good system into my hack.

I have been taking levels with the API kit. It seems the PH is going up and the kit says 8, but i got a blue lab pen and its saying 7.6.
The ammonia levels are at 0 but I'm having issues with the nitrites up at 5ppm.

I did a bit of reading and read about salting the kit and I added 180 grams of pool salt yesterday.

The Nitrate was ups at 80ppm so I put a few heavier feeding seedlings in and it and its sitting now at about 40ppm.

The system cycles about fills and empties about 5 - 6 times an hour.

This system has only been up for a week.

So here are some questions I'm hoping to get help with.

Was salting the system the right thing to do?
How long will this take to make an effect if any?
and will this in turn help drop the PH as I don't want to start adding PH down yet till I understand what is going on with these reading.
How is the best way to look after the fish in the system? (feed them pellets or lay off till the nitrites are under control)

I have done a fair bit of reading etc on this but I feel i need to get a brains trust involved to get it sorted.
I feel the system needed to cycle longer in hindsight but I now with the fish in, Im hoping there are some ways of going forward with this.

Any tips or observations on the system would be appreciated.

If you made it this far on this long winded post I thank you greatly and will be grateful for any help.

Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris welcome to the forum

Wheres the photos we love photos

This forum is the best place to learn about aquaponics

You tube can be good or misleading I will leave it at that

Your system is only a week old so the readings you are getting are probably due to what you have added

There are no short cuts in cycling bacteria take time to colonize the available surface area and convert ammonia to nitrate (usually a few weeks or months in cooler weather)

Salt yes a bit more needed 250 grams , usually at least 1 part per thousand to offset nitrite (1 kilo in a 1000 Litres)

Did you add any ammonia at the start

Tried and proven cycling either with fish or without (fishless with adding ammonia)

Raise ammonia to about 1ppm (no more than 3ppm) wait wait wait until nitrite shows up then nitrate will show up wait until ammonia and nitrite drop to zero , you should not see nitrite ever again.

At this stage your system has cycled again this can take weeks or months depending on everything from ph to temperature

However this doesn't mean your system is running at full capacity

The bacteria will multiply along with available ammonia so your system capacity (fish) will slowly increase as time goes by.

Don't worry about trying to adjust ph at this early stage just keep your ammonia at safe levels (chart below)

Foliar spray your plants with iron chelate for now as the high ph locks up iron and the plants will show deficiency

Cover your fish tank say 90% so your fish are more comfortable (also stops algae) this may help them feed

Remove any uneaten feed as it will go rotten and get the dreaded fungus growing on it

It drives me to despair every time I move my Murray Cod they get the Sh&ts and refuse to eat for a month

It takes a long time for your fish to starve to death so don't worry too much just keep trying I get my little cod through winter on compost worms then it takes me ages to retrain them to eat pellets but im not losing any so it works for me .

Thanks for the advice. Heaps of really useful info there and I am learning quickly to try keep it under control.
There were 2 hydro systems and I converter 1 to aqua and I was going to put the high nutrients stuff in the hydro, but the corn, beans and peas are going crazy in the punnets that i put in there just to get the nitrates down.

I took some readings just before and this is what I got

Ph 7.9 @ 24deg
Ammonia .25ppm up from 0 yesterday
Nitrite 2ppm down from 5ppm yesterday salted on Tuesday
Nitrate 20ppm down from 80ppm after adding more plants.

I didn't add any ammonia at the start. Was told fill the tank and let the chlorine evaporate for a couple of days, add the bio starter and fish. I feel this was wrong.
I am defiantly learning heaps about the system with all these readings etc.

So if you could correct me if I am wrong but this is what I am taking out of the latest reading and what you have said.

The ammonia is up a bit so the fish are producing ammonia but it should be a bit higher. Is it correct that bacteria need ammonia to process first before the nitrite will be processed?

The Nitrite has lowered but I need to add a bit more salt. Does this salting take a few days to come into effect?

The Nitrate is all good and feeding the plants

I am going to have to work out a way to suck the lefter over food on the bottom but there isn't that much at this point. I will get something from the aquarium shop

My mission today will be to make a better solid/fine filter and keeping the fish alive till its cycled well and levels are all good.

Cheers

Chris

Bio start is hit or miss. I don't fully trust it. Ammonia don't focus on it too much at the .25 trace level. You probably have a TAN test kit (that's what the API test is). It test ionized and unionized Ammonia. There is a chart you can look up and its temp vs PH and it gives you a number you multiply by the TAN to get the actually toxic ammonia level. I normally have trace amounts of ammonia. I can get rid of it if I clean my tanks and filters everyday.

Your nitrites are high and in the danger zone but if you raised you salt to 1ppt then that will protect them. Its instant and doesn't need to he constantly added. Some keep the system salted and some only add it when there is a problem. It doesn't need to be added again unless there is a problem or your system is outside and getting diluted by rain. The article is called The Use of Salt in Aquaculture by the University of Florida, (it's free to google)it gives you you all the salt concentrations from Brown Blood Disease (nitrite Poisoning) to parasites.At 2ppm nitrites you only need 12ppm of salt.

You have fish in there and the system is cycling so you do not want them higher. At .25 ppm is a good place to be with fish in. From what I have read, at 5ppm ammonia you retard the Nitrosoma and at 1ppm ammonia it retards nitrobactor/spira. From personal experience my nitrites don't start dropping till I got the ammonia under 1ppm (when cycling). Once your bio filter is healthy your ammonia can go up and down and you won't see nitrites. Only nitrates.

You system is fine and on the right track. If you salted to 1ppt I wouldn't do anything else except have patience and test the water a couple times daily. Start a log and diary so you can establish trends and know what you did if you mess something up. I also wouldn't feed them and if they beg and you do feed them (fish are good liers and beggers), clean out any uneaten food. My system normally has trace ammonia in it. Not quite zero but not quite .25ppm. Next time do a fishless cycle. I always fill bad when I kill fish.

That's not a horrible PH it will come down then the fight to keep it up starts.

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All good

Watch for iron deficiency (high Ph is the cause)

Thanks guys for the help. It's really cleared things up in my head with where it's all going. I am getting yellowing of some leaves so I would imagine this is the iron locked up and for the use of iron chelate on the foliage. Do you just water that on and is it safe to go into the tank? I added a bit more salt to bring it up to the recommended amount.
The fish are feeding which i suppose is a good sign and I made a solids filter that seems to be doing well.

Being a small tank the temperature can move up and down a bit. It was 24deg this morning and 29deg this afternoon. Do the fish handle that sort of fluctuation?

Thank again.

Foliar feed like Terra said. Normally you could just add it to your sump or water it in but your PH is high. And it would lock out the nutrients.

Temp swing tolerance is fish dependent. My minnows, goldfish and bluegill dont seam to mind the 10*F swings at the moment. It is a good idea to insulate the tanks if you can.

Yes, the fish eating is a great sign they are healthy and happy.

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