help with cycling

[Crusty]

G'day Crusty,I reckon it might, i did mention that in my last post as i was thinking that myself. Hoo Roo Brett

Hey Brett.

It should only be very temporary as it will swing very quickly to acid. I am a little concerned about the use of urea as a starter for Nitrosospira sp. Indeed it works but the risk to any live stock is a tad high. Personally, I prefer to let nature do what she does best. I throw a handful of soil and piss in the filter and all works out nicely. Once it is kicked in, it is relatively difficult to kill it. Temperature, fertilier and pH will have an affect on the start up Nitrosospira sp. The autotrophic nitrifying bacteria will have very high competition from heterotrophic bacteria on start up until your media is conditioned to establish habitat for the goodies you are chasing. The difficult part is the urea will not provide all the nutritional needs and will deplete very quickly after hydrolysis of the urea.

Anyway just me rambling.

[BARRAMUNDI BRETT'O]

Hi crusty,I agree urea is probably not ideal so how about a couple of bucket's of water from the local river,it is a good healthy system plenty of fish, mussels etc.As i am not running a bio filter i assume the handfull of dirt would go in one of my grow beds?.I would have to get a pee sample from my 5 year old nephew,I reckon mine would be toxic to any living organism.
Bye Brett

[Outbackozzie]

I dont know why everyone is so down on urea? I run a 1000l system solely on urea and seasol, and have excellent plant growth, and the lone fish is very healthy.

People just need to stop putting too much of it in all at once.

I have never had a PH swing upwards from urea, only a downward trend from the nitrification process.

[Crusty]

Hi Brett

I would have concerns about introducing source water from a local river onto a closed system that goes untreated prior to use. Never know what you will bring in with it. I did it once with a local catch I had and somehow brought in a great snail colony that clogged up my bio media.

You would be surprised about urine. Our filter systems work well enough to remove any nasties that may cause an issue and all dirt contains the bacteria you need. The dirt can go through your tanks or filter media, not sure if you are using a filter so the grow bed media will do as well.

Hi crusty,I agree urea is probably not ideal so how about a couple of bucket's of water from the local river,it is a good healthy system plenty of fish, mussels etc.As i am not running a bio filter i assume the handfull of dirt would go in one of my grow beds?.I would have to get a pee sample from my 5 year old nephew,I reckon mine would be toxic to any living organism.
Bye Brett

[BARRAMUNDI BRETT'O]

Man am I confused,I use urea and i get results as far as producing nitrate ,i put in a couple of prawns and bingo ammonia but no nitrite or nitrate,what is a bloke to do.I have a hagen water tester.

PH-8 WATER TEMP 22 C
AMM-0.3-06
NITRITE 0
NITRATE 0

Going by my scale the ammonia count doesnt regeister until it hits 1.2 so at a ph of 8 going off this scale the Amm hardly is there even though the test water shows some,am i getting this right and should i introduce more of an ammonia source.I will try to bring the ph down with some buffer. I might add my system has already cycled but am trying to keep it all up and running for the arrival of my jades,I put the 8 goldfish and a few yabbys back in to try and help.
hoo roo Brett

[Murray]

Mate, just don't panic.
Let it all settle down for a day or two.

If you have some goldies and a couple of yabbies in there it will all work out. Just be patient.
Is the water coming clean ?

[BARRAMUNDI BRETT'O]

OK Muz,I have sucked in a few deep ones and put on some soft music ahh thats better.the water is crystal and has been for ages.Bye the way murray Bill from emerald who purchased one of your kits is coming around today, it is great to have another AP enthusiast in town,as far as i know we are the only 2 as yet.Would'nt it be great if there ended up being a whole mob of us,we could start up a club and get the community learned up on the benifit's and fun of ap,ta for your calming words. Bye Brett