Aquaponic Gardening

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I have only been doing AP for a little over a year now. My system was great for the better part of that year. I'll admit, I neglected it. I had several set backs, my diy heater blew up, gopher tunneled under my FT, Tilapia froze and died. Since all this I decided that since i have to start over i may as well re-design it the way i want. I added a swirl filter, relocated my media bed and cleaned up the plumbing. after it's all said and done 3 months later I still am getting zero success in cycling my system. I tried just adding ammonia, goldfish, both combined so on and so on. for the longest time i was too prideful to ask for help. please if you guys can direct me in any way or maybe share your similar issues, it would be greatly appreciated 

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Post the water readings, we can work from there.   Also how big is your system as in water volume?  You'll want to decide to do fish or fishless cycling don't do a combination, you'll just end up killing the fish.

PH is 6.2 before I topped off 50 gallons or so. FT is 350 gallons. with a 55 gallon filter. ammonia/nitrite/nitrate all at zero.

k, only add a cap full of ammonia in the morning check the reading in the evening to see if you've readings.  then check again in the morning - you're hoping for all to be zero by the morning (I'm sure you know this).  If you are getting readings in the evenings add plants - they will take in the nitrates and help that get down to a zero nitrate reading.  As soon as you can do this consistently you are considered cycled, and are ready to go, just let nature do it's course.  Also make sure the ammonia you are adding is pure ammonia with nothing added (you can get this at ace hardware).  Let me know how it goes in the next few days.

how did you get your ph so low with arizona water?

Are you treating the top off water with acid or something else?

ph got lower and lower over time. I use a de-chlorine filter to top off. I have added maxi crop in the past. other than that I dont know.

update, things may have gotten worse. I dont know. I was adding ammonia to the ft and my dog knocked over the bottle into the ft. ammonia read over 8 ppm last night. just checked my levels and ammonia is zero ph is 6.2 nitrites/nitrates are both zero. forgive my ignorance but shouldn't I have some nitrites/nitrates considering i have no plants in my system right now? i need to go buy fish, but i dont want to add them if i will be putting them in danger of losing their lives due to my impatience. please let me know. i want to do you guys proud.

You (your dog) may have added so much ammonia that the test reads 0. That's how the reagent test kit behaves. Start dilluting a sample to confirm. Anything much above 6 starts to inhibit (read: kill) your bacteria...in which case water changes would be in order...Good luck :)

thats what i thought so i went to extremes and did a 50/50 water change. just read ammonia levels still at zero. any thoughts?

update. I added 30 fish to my tank. levels look fine no ammonia just good ol' nitrates. time to add some plants. thanks for the feedback. i really respect your input. i am very thankful

What happened between the 3rd and 17th that made the system safe?

I would imagine that his pH went up. A component for the nitrification process is a high pH. When you initially cycle your system you want try and keep it >7.5, which also makes the fish happier. Plants prefer a slightly acid water of 6.5 ish. 

Once your system has been cycled you ideally want an pH about 6.8-7.2 which is in the middle. Some people opt to have a regular aquarium for 'mating' (mating only happens under good conditions, otherwise nothing is going to happen) and 'recovery' (from illness) that way they can keep the pH as high as 8 without killing your plants.


awesome. thanks steven.


Steven Files said:

I would imagine that his pH went up. A component for the nitrification process is a high pH. When you initially cycle your system you want try and keep it >7.5, which also makes the fish happier. Plants prefer a slightly acid water of 6.5 ish. 

Once your system has been cycled you ideally want an pH about 6.8-7.2 which is in the middle. Some people opt to have a regular aquarium for 'mating' (mating only happens under good conditions, otherwise nothing is going to happen) and 'recovery' (from illness) that way they can keep the pH as high as 8 without killing your plants.

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