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Everything is high??
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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on
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Can you tell us the details of the process you used to start your cycling?
What was your initial water source?
Did you add anything to help jump start the process?
What is your ammonia source and how much did you use?
If you used any aquarium filtration and aquarium water to help kick start things that would explain where your nitrates came from as well as why there are already nitrites so quickly.
I fear you may have overdosed a bit on the ammonia, I wouldn't dose anymore till you get down into a very light green color then I would only dose enough to get somewhere between 1-4 ppm and see if both ammonia and nitrite will drop within 24 hours before dosing again. Once you can dose to between 1-4 ppm and have both ammonia and nitrite drop to 0 in 24 hours, you are fishlessly cycled.
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Permalink Reply by Sylvia Bernstein on
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Hi Windy. Looks like you might be cycled - which is amazing considering how soon you got started!. Did you add an outside source of bacteria? The way to know is to stop adding ammonia and see if your ammonia and nitrite levels go to zero by this time tomorrow. That would mean that you have established both types of nitrifying bacteria and they are doing their job. Do you have plants in there yet?
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Permalink Reply by Windy Elliott on
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I used the cycling kit that came with the system from Sylvia and Alan. And yes, I have a few plants in the bed. But I haven't added anything that wasn't in the instructions you sent me. I guess we will wait and see. I will test again when I get home from work tomorrow.
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Oh! I just thought of something! I was having trouble with the small system. The fish had to be treated for ick and I didn't want to mess up my strawberries. So I took the plants out of that grow bed along with the media and put it all in the new one. That is very likely where the new bacteria came from!
Sylvia Bernstein said:
Hi Windy. Looks like you might be cycled - which is amazing considering how soon you got started!. Did you add an outside source of bacteria? The way to know is to stop adding ammonia and see if your ammonia and nitrite levels go to zero by this time tomorrow. That would mean that you have established both types of nitrifying bacteria and they are doing their job. Do you have plants in there yet?
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Kick start media from an existing system is a definite big help and can greatly reduce cycle up time.
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There you go! I'll bet you are going to see no ammonia or nitrite tomorrow (or very little). Record cycling time!
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Yeah! And all I wanted to do was not waste stuff from the other system!
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Ok. Here are my numbers for today with the changes to the far right. AP is the aquaponic system tank and HT is my hospital tank.
The weird thing is in my AP tank my nitrates went down instead of up and my ammonia stayed the same. So I guess I am not cycling as fast as I had hoped. I had put my lights on the same timer as the pump and I'm wondering if that slowed things down?
As for my hospital tank it looks like not feeding them for a day helped with their numbers. I added something to help with cycling and gave them some food tonight. I'm worried if I go longer than a day they will start eating each other and I don't want to lose any of them.
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Windy, I wonder if you just have so much ammonia that it might be overwhelming your bacteria. Might be a good idea to do a 1/3 water change. Do you have access to 20 gallons of dechlorinated water?
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and don't feed the fish in the hospital tank with ammonia that high!!!!
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No, I don't have dechlorinated water hanging around. I did order a filter I can attach to a hose, but it hasn't arrived yet. I do have 3 gals of bottled drinking water. Ok... no more feeding the fish. I just feel sorry for them and I don't want them to eat each other. :-(
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Today's numbers. My tank with fish is just stuck...
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