A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

what chemicals to buy to start cycling??

I have a fill/drain system. 30 gallon ft and 10 gallon gb. Bell siphon.

I started my cycling process. I added amonia about 5 days ago. I am going to buy test strips today so i was wondering what else i should get while Im there. Will I most likely need to raise ph or lower it? What else do I need?

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Permalink Reply by Keith Rowan on January 17, 2013 at 6:46am

the only thing you might need would be some "maxicrop with iron"

don't add any "chemicals" to your ft or gb.. the ph will sort itself out over time, and you may find that you need to buffer it back up as the system matures.. shell grit works fine for this (slow reacting, buffers to between 7.2 to 7.4)

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Permalink Reply by Alex Veidel on January 17, 2013 at 8:54am

I don't know, I've heard some things about test strips, most concerning accuracy. I highly recommend an API Freshwater Test kit. Whether you need to raise or lower pH mostly involves your water you will be using. Most people say that an aquaponics system has a tendency to go down in pH and the majority of adjustments you make will be buffering it back up. I, however, have some extremely high pH well water (8.0+) so I guess I will never get to find out :) If you don't have any fish, hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid) is good. If fish are present, hydrochloric acid is too strong and will stress, if not kill, your fish. I use pH down (it comes in powder and liquid; i use powder) by general hydroponics. As far as buffering up, well I haven't really needed to do that, but I've heard hydrated lime is good. Or pH up by general hydroponics I'm sure is good too.