Waiting for Bacteria

[Nolan Crow]

I am new to Aquaponics and have read and watch vids, but I think I have gotten a little over zealous. I have built an approximately 60'ish gallon media base system. I have the fish tub being pumped into a 3 stage bio-filter process that I built and then into a grow bed with the clay pebbles and back to fish tank. My dilemma is that I got 146 gold feeder fish and I am having to control the ammonia levels. It has only been 2 weeks, but when will bacteria begin to colonize in my bio-filter. My fish tank water is tinted yellow. I have been progressively keeping it down, not to stress the fish as bad. I have been adding water little by little. I am not trying to delude it down so much that I kill potential bacteria. I am beginning to worry that I am missing something though. I have some Lettuce sprouts started but of no significance at the moment and 3 strawberry plants are beginning to manifest.( the ones in the pics died I had to start over)  I know now I got crazy with my fish population, but is there hope of getting through this without having to return fish or feeding them to my cat, Neo. LOL

[Jeffrey Ihara]

I hope you have enough lemon wedges for your cat.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Go and grab Sylvia Bernstein's book and give it a read. God help your feeder fish.

[Bob Terrell]

Your cat  told me to tell you that "there is a reason they call them feeder fish"

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Nolan,

Cycling will test your patience for sure! This is just one of those times when you have to be prepared to sit back and let nature take its course. If you have adequate ammonia, water turnover, and temperature, you will eventually cycle. I've noticed quite a few people opting for using fish for cycling, which is rather unnecessary, and not to mention stressful on fish, especially when we have tutorials here on fishless cycling.

I notice your multistage filtration, any particular reason you chose this type of design? The water you add is chlorine free i assume.

[Nolan Crow]

I use osmosis water. For the most part it is free of most things or very, very low. As far as the 3 stage filtration, I am mostly shooting for personal habit, for I will take this to a bigger concept after the trail and error stage of all this. I have noticed that it is more effective when it comes to larger fish volume densities in a single tank and also allows me to easily salvage fish waste more efficiently for fertilizer or whatever. The bucket acts as a cyclone filter and a thermal tank heater / all in one purpose. The mesh filter defiantly grabs the floaters..lol. The idea then is that the third stage can be free to be a bacteria colony. This also helps me as far as keeping the grow bed moderately clean of waste also, keeping the clean out of the beds to a minimal. It is definitely easier to turn off the pumps for a bit and then just clean the 2 stages of the filter and not everything else. This also allows me to not risk losing any bacteria. I find that it is more effective to have each item as a separate entity, though the construction is more intensive, it has what I feel to be beneficial failsafe's for a variety of possible issues.( contaminations, disease, etc. etc.) This way everything isn't a complete loss. Now I am taking all these precautions because I am a newbie to this and maybe when I get it down, some of it wont be necessary.
 
Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi Nolan,

Cycling will test your patience for sure! This is just one of those times when you have to be prepared to sit back and let nature take its course. If you have adequate ammonia, water turnover, and temperature, you will eventually cycle. I've noticed quite a few people opting for using fish for cycling, which is rather unnecessary, and not to mention stressful on fish, especially when we have tutorials here on fishless cycling.

I notice your multistage filtration, any particular reason you chose this type of design? The water you add is chlorine free i assume.

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Nolan,

You have done an excellent job in your AP design. You're right about AP systems evolving as we learn more and more. I've found that plant growth is directly affected by how much solids(fish waste) are left to mineralize in the system

[Steve Wilson]

Hi Bro, long time no see. Good to see your getting started in AP. You are further along than me - currently renting a place that has no space but we are hoping to move to the country (Lord willing) so we can do a green house & AP. Drop a line when you get a chance & keep up the good work. Steve