noobie

[satori]

Some questions :

Media : What do you guys think of using lava rock? I am going to tumble it in my cement mixer which is clean to get most of the edge off.

Ratio : a little over 1:1 at first i have 4 30 gal grow beds.

Fish : I already have a tank of convicts , how many should i have in the tank? I read some where its supposed to be 1 inch of fish per gal?

Fill / drain cycle : Right now the test is filling in 2 min and draining in 1:30 one issue i am having is it drains ALOT better when i lift the bell siphon alittle as its draining , that really gets it going. Any idea why?

Thanks for the help! I will have pictures of my setup soon!
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[Ravnis]

several members including myself use lava rock.

1 inch of fish to a gallon gives you a lot of play room while learning. Consider it a place to start, but you can go up considerably once your system is cycled and you have your system running properly.

My guess on the siphon is lack of head space, but this is just a guess without more information. I find 2.54(1 ") to be the minimum and more works too. I have one that works with 6" of head space ~150 mm.

[satori]

How long should i "cycle" for before adding more fish?

How is a good fill , and drain time for the beds? I searched and did not find much info. Maybe i was searching wrong.

For the siphon issue , i have try'd a bell thats about 2.5 inches over the stand pipe and it still siphons better when i lift the bell? weird ehh...


thanks for the help! Lava is in the tumbler!

[satori]

Can anyone help with how long i should have the system running before adding all the fish i will need?

What are the ideal numbers for water quality?

PH :
HIGH PH :
AMMONIA :
NITRATE :
NITRITE :


I figured out what my main problem with the siphon was ! I was using a rubber reducer and when the siphon was at its peak it would bend the reducer stoping the siphon , removed that and now only use a stand pipe and its working great!

One thing i am not getting is how often the bed should be filling and draining....

If you guys are skeptical about lava rock because of how sharp it is , rent a cement mixer and tumble them they turn out very nice! I bought some hydrotron so i can compare the two when this all gets going. One thing about the hydrotron i washed it ALOT and it still put alot of fog to the water hopefully that settles soon.

Can anyone help with how long i should have the system running before adding all the fish i will need?

[Ravnis]

the time is variable, cycling can take from 1 week to over 2 months.
What you are looking for is a rise and fall of ammonia back to 0 and then the same with nitrites. When there is a constant load from fish or continous input of a nitrogen source(fertilizer, urea, ammonia without other chemicals or surfactant) and you are reading 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites and nitrates are rising, then your system is considered cycled.

The other thing that is important is Dissolved oxygen. The meters to read that are fairly expensive. $700 seems to be the going price.

The biggest mistake beginners make is rushing things the first few months it takes time for the system to develop all of the biological components in it. I know because I rushed and had my share of mishaps.

As far as ph, between 6.2 and 8. The main thing is that it is stable. Plant growth is better closer to 6.5, but system cycling is slightly faster at the higher ph.

Fill and drain of ~2 minutes is ok. When you read more system setups you will see there is a wide variety of fill and drain times.