conditioning my new system... I need help!

[julieleanne]

Hi All,

i have recently set up an IBC as a temp solution and as an experiment.

i have been trying to get the levels up to were i can get some fish put in but they seem to be staying the same...
ph - 7.8
ammonia - 0 ppm
NO2 - 0 and NO3 -0

i have used dam water (expecting some bacteria) and Seasol. then i removed most (onto the vege patch) and topped up with rain water... my partner has even peed in the water but still no change

any suggestions from the community would be greatly appreciated.

i have added a couple of photos of the set up so you can see what i have done so far.

cheers,

Julie

[fishfood]

Hi julie you have a great start first is there somewon close by who can give you some sand water or aquariam filter squeezings [local pet shop ect ] if not just get a few gold fish and start the cycling with them with the present temperature it may take a while the seasol will only help to keep the plants alive When starting of in cold weather [patiance is a virtue ] its to late for trout and probley a bit early for silver perch

[Hamish]

You need to feed it every day with a source of ammonia. I used Urea granules. Have a look at my thread it tells the cycling story from start to finish. http://www.aquaponicshq.com/forums/showthread.php?t=467

[GaryD]

Hi Julieanne,

Go to the local garden supply shop and buy some Yates Urea and begin to add it to the water at the rate of 1 tablespoon per day until your ammonia tests begin to register. Keep doing that until your reach upwards of 2.0 on your tests. Your nitrite readings will kick in soon after. When both ammonia and nitrite readings drop to zero, your system will have cycled....and you can expect nitrate readings soon after.

The process that I've described is called fishless cycling (or nitrogen dosing) and it's quick, decisive and doesn't involve live fish.

GaryD

[julieleanne]

Cheers Guys,

i will try the urea trick and see what happens... i have another tub with a couple of goldies and a few yabbies in it which is also breeding up my duckweed population for when i finally do get some Jade Perch; when the system is ready.

good luck in the new place Hamish it will be a big change from the gold Coast... my partner and i have just moved to Murwillumbah from Sydney just over a year ago and just love this area. hopefully we'll get our own place one day too and can then set up a proper aquaponics system (hence my IBC)

Ta again

Julie

[Hamish]

Thanks seems like a lot of people are escaping from cities to the country.

[Jonathan Dyer]

Why on Earth does anyone recommend 15g of Urea per day to cycle…It wont do **** (its about the same quantity as pee). The dilution rate is tremendous. Yes it will work but the difference is just as slow as leaving it to itself naturally.

If you want to accelerate the process by a few weeks then the addition of a bottle of starter bacteria brought from a pet shop will help. I take it Julie your tank holds about 900L I would increase your Urea dose to 200g; a week later a further 150g; week three possibly 100g. Don’t be alarmed if the readings are a tad high as the bacteria require nitrogen to grow and multiply its there food source so nitrogen is essential. It generally takes around a month to fully cycle. As you already have plants established in your system they will consume the readily available nitrogen. If your readings are too high when your fish are ready to add a simple partial water change will reduce this. Keeping your tanked covered and the more aeration the better will help void off algae blooms and build up the bacteria quickly giving you the best possible start you could wish for.

Keep a close eye on your pH levels and adjust when required; I would also consider adding more bio-filters to your system if that is your only grow bed.

[Hamish]

Why on Earth does anyone recommend 15g of Urea per day to cycle…It wont do **** (its about the same quantity as pee). The dilution rate is tremendous. Yes it will work but the difference is just as slow as leaving it to itself naturally.

It worked fine for me. My journal shows the progress of cycling and the system has been very stable ever since. Can only go off this experience.

[Jonathan Dyer]

Hi Hamish, Its still not much different of what would happen if you just left your water to cycle for itself, your higher water temperatures helped speed things up as well but a teaspoon really doesn’t do much. Look the best one could do is carve perhaps 3 to 4 weeks off a system to fully cycle than that of one occurring naturally. There’s just some added benefits of cycling a system in the shortest possible time than have it cycle naturally over time; it will still cycle no matter what.

[Jonathan Dyer]

I have just checked your Excel doc Hamish.

During your Ammonia readings none of them exceeded 0.5mg/L which is not very high at all when performing a fishless cycle. However at this time you have already added fish to your system on May/28/2008. It was the following day that you experienced this peak of 0.5mg/L and lost 2 goldfish. You explained it as rough handling of the fish but overlooked that your ammonia levels were cause for concern for fish health and based on your other readings I calculated that your TAN had approximately 6% in the un-ionised toxic form, both combined may have been enough to cause your fish deaths. Then again 2 day latter you lost another fish also overlooking the fact that your nitrate levels were fairly high with a distinct jump overnight. The addition of salt helped no end, however, if it was added on the first day you may not have lost a fish.

It was only 7 days from your set up to adding your fish, now can this be called fishless cycling? I understand you were trying to cycle your system with the addition of some fish but the idea of fishless cycling is to let your system fully stabilise for a minimum of three weeks prior to adding any fish, hence reducing fish loses if at all. Your system was far from stable according to your readings when you added some fish and impossible to achieve in 7 days.