My New System

[POC3442]

I would of never thought of throwing some food in the swirl tank...figured that would be a bad thing but I guess when it breaks down it'll create more ammonia so it'll just supplement me adding ammonia to the system until it cycles and I get my fish. As far as cycling goes...if it cycles next week and I won't get my fish in it for another month (looking at getting fry and raising them in a smaller tank then putting them in the larger one) is OK to stop adding ammonia to the big tank or do I need to keep adding it to keep the bacteria all happy and alive?

I have 50 Liters of K1 in the 55 gallon drum. For a 55 gallons of water you should have 70 liters of K1 but they only sell it in 50 and 100L. Also the water is never at the top in the moving bio filter drum anyways so it's more like 40-45 gallons.

[GaryD]

I would of never thought of throwing some food in the swirl tank...figured that would be a bad thing but I guess when it breaks down it'll create more ammonia so it'll just supplement me adding ammonia to the system until it cycles and I get my fish. As far as cycling goes...if it cycles next week and I won't get my fish in it for another month (looking at getting fry and raising them in a smaller tank then putting them in the larger one) is OK to stop adding ammonia to the big tank or do I need to keep adding it to keep the bacteria all happy and alive?

I'd usually prefer to use pure ammonia to cycle a system but it's not as readily available as feed.....and it has another benefit in your situation.

Your moving bed bio-filter needs to get a little dirty to work properly....bio-film builds up on the surfaces of the tiny media and this is where the nitrifying bacteria live.

In any case, feed is what drives your system once you put fish in it......so you might as well cycle the system using the same stuff.

The logic of using feed this way eluded me, too.......and then Crusty (with whom I was discussing moving bed bio-filters) connected me with the need to get the media 'dirty' to get it working.

If you put the feed into your swirl tank, you'll contain the sludge while all of other other things you want from it will spread through your system.

Gary

[POC3442]

Ok so I've been trying to cycle my system. Added feed and I'm stuck. I added maybe too much Urea. Still no fish in it yet.
pH 8 . Currently using 1M Hydrochloric Acid to try and get it down.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 5+
Nitrate 80 ppm

I added the Urea a week ago going to keep watching my Nitrite but doesn't seem to even go very low. Any suggestions?

[GaryD]

Hi POC,

Your nitrite levels suggest that you might have been too generous with the urea......particularly in light of the 0 reading for ammonia.

Don't worry about the pH at this stage.....you don't have any fish in the system so you won't do any harm.

Don't add any more urea. At some point, the ammonia and the nitrite levels should both drop to zero. The presence of nitrates suggests that your system has cycled.....so let's wait till the nitrite levels settle a little before we do anything else.

Let things settle rather than changing things too quickly. Keep reporting your readings over the next few days.

Gary

[POC3442]

Sorry I have not posted...my internet has been down as of late. But that being said seems like everything stabilized out. I'm still stuck with a high pH though. And my zucchini plants seem to be taking up the nutrients just fine in the higher pH water. If they continue to do OK I might just not mess around and leave the pH around 8. As I'm sure it'll naturally go down when the fish have been in there for a while.

[GaryD]

Hi,

Things will start to drop once your fish get some size on them and you start to pour the feed into them.

Gary