Just got done cycling my first system "I hope"

[Jared Mevissen]

Looked like cycling was done so I got some fish and I took a quick video of one of my cats checking out the fishies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENYT5V1QLp4

Will have to check my levels today/tommorow but I think I am cycled amonia/nitrites were down near 0 and nitrates are in the red. Just added the fish yesterday. Have been running the system for a few weeks but only like a weak with amonia but I had 2 dirty fish tank filters in the tank and some fish tank starter bacteria stuff.

c/p from youtube video

This is a short video of the first time my cat saw my fish in my aquaponics system I just got done cycling "I think" and have added 10 small fish mostly goldfish with a few others mixed in the cats are quite interested and my dog found it interesting as well.

Anyhow this is a 55gallon aquarium with a 40 gallon stock tank, I know not 1:1 but I plan to add another smaller grow bed in the future possibly and most likely the fist tank will not always have 55 gallons of water in it for one thing I do have gravel in the tank and some other things that take up some of that capacity.

So for my plumbing I am using 1/2 pvc for filling my grow bed and 1" pvc for my drain I could not find the tapered fitting Julia talked about so I bought 2 1"-3/4" reducers and put a short piece of 3/4" pipe in between them to create my reduction on my bell it works but I think I am losing a lot of available variance in flow rates. I can run my flood drains between around 7-12 minutes any faster or slow and I eather will not start my syphon or it won't stop.

You may also notice a second 1" pipe going threw the bottom of my grow bed with a 1/2" flex pipe going into the tank that is a redundant overflow in case for some reason my bell got plugged "I know highly unlikely" but this is in my dining room and I don't want a flood so I am being a little extra cautious.

I used uniseals to put my 1" pipe threw the bottom of my stock tank they work great just make sure you use a lot of window washer when pushing your pipe I used windex all natural so less chance of getting any harmful chemicals in my tank, and a 2" pipe with cap for bell with a 4" pipe with slits most of the way up then 1/4" holes at the top I used the thin wall 4" pipe not regular pvc since its cheeper and I had some laying around.

I also used a lot of T fittings instead of elbows and added valves on those so that I could do easy clean outs with pipe cleaner etc, I did glue everything together again against Sylvia's reccomendations but again this is in my dining room I don't need leaks and with the clean outs it should not be a problem.

[Jared Mevissen]

System is working great sofar looks like I am cycled, my amonia/nitrites have stayed at 0 while feeding my fish and nitrates are in the red. Just added red worms today and found a good way to do it by just putting them on a piece of paper on top of the grow bed and they naturally head to the hydroton for some reason. I made a quick vid you can see them going for the hydroton.