The process of fishless cycling

[Ben Gleason]

Hi everyone!

 

So I "dove" into the world of Aquaponics head first, excited about the amazing results people were talking about, and knowing that this closed loop system has amazing capabilities to grow some fantastic food. 

 

I built my system, and am in the phase of fishless cycling.  I am following the guidelines as outlined in the "Starting your Aquaponics System Using Fishless Cycling."  Per the instructions, I found that it took approximately 35mL of ammonia (store-bought at Ace Hardware) to reach 5ppm in my tank (about 250 gallons).  I've added that same amount of ammonia each day for the last 10 days or so.  So far, I haven't seen any nitrites in the system, and am concerned that I've got way too much ammonia in there.  Can someone please comment and let me know if this is the normal process?  When doing a reading for ammonia in the system, the results are off the chart (literally).  The color is a deep, deep green (the ammonia test results), and I couldn't tell you how many ammonia ppm are in the fish tank now.  The pH level is high too - looks to be around 8.8 or so.  And with the fishless cycling, do I wait to add my plants until the fishless cycling has completed, or should there be some plants in there right now?  I know that I can't have fish in there yet, but I didn't see any information related to whether or not plants should be in the grow medium while the cycling is going on.

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated!  I need to put my mind at ease and would like to know if everything that is happening in my system is to be expected.  If it's just a matter of me needing to be more patient, then that's great.  But if I'm doing the process wrong and need to do something different, please let me know!

 

Thanks so much!

 

Ben

[TCLynx]

Hi Ben, Welcome to the addiction.

First, what was your source water and did you make sure the chlorine or chloramine was neutralize or degassed before adding the ammonia?

 

I come from the school of less is more with the ammonia on fishless cycling.  Here is a blog post I have written about it.

TCLynx, Fishless cycling

Now Days many people say to dose up higher but so far in my experience that often leads to ammonia levels off the charts and things stalling out or starting to stink.

I would recommend getting your ammonia level back down to 4 or 5 ppm and then waiting until you see the ammonia level start to fall (like below 1 ppm) before you dose again, and at that point you might want to go to a smaller dose while you wait for the initial nitrite spike to start to fall as well.  Once both spikes have fallen you will then want to dose the higher amount and then wait and see how long it takes for the ammonia to fall back close to 0 and if the nitrite is close to 0 then too.  Basically, you want to get to the point that you can give your desired dose of ammonia and have both the ammonia and nitrite levels drop to 0 within 24 hours of giving that dose.  Then you can keep the bacteria alive by dosing daily until a day or two before you can get the fish in the system.

 

As for plants, I would wait until the ammonia is dropping since a sky high ammonia level can burn your plants but otherwise you will want plants in really soon since dosing to 4 ppm of ammonia is going to give you really high nitrates once they start showing up.

[Ben Gleason]

Hi TCLynx,

 

Thanks so much for your input! 

 

The water source was local city water.  Overall, Colorado Springs, CO has decent water.  I did let the water degass for 48 hours before adding the initial ammonia, and I believe the amount of chlorine in our local water is pretty low anyway.

 

I will definitely follow your advise for the remainder of this cycling period.  I was very happy to find out yesterday morning (a few hours after I posted my inquiry here) that the system is now showing nitrites!  I haven't tested it today (will be doing so soon), but I'm sure it's spiked.  But, at least I know things are working as expected - I just have to be patient, and let nature do her work. 

 

Thanks again for the quick response!  It's great to have this online community.  No doubt once I am up and running with the fish and plants in the system, it will be MUCH more addictive! :-)

[TCLynx]

Hang in there, this is often the hardest part.