Comment

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on February 18, 2012 at 4:54am

LOL! Yes, I've seen your videos. I have a great memory, but it's very short. :)

We used to test our water weekly, and now we do every couple of months. The only thing that's ever registered was a high PH. Different locations have different water. Ours appears to be very stable.

Have you tested your water to see if it has any readings?  I'm sure your nitrites are from cycling. R/O water won't stop that; you just have to wait until your bacteria is fully developed.

In the meantime, any time you see a high reading, do a water change. Sometimes those changes are every few days, but in time it settles down and life gets a little easier.

Comment by David Schwinghamer on February 17, 2012 at 10:58pm

I was reading about nitrites and the article said to use some nitrite free water from an RO system, have you tested the nitrites from your barrel with muratic acid in it to see if its nitrite free?

Comment by David Schwinghamer on February 17, 2012 at 10:53pm

Didnt you see my two past videos, they show lots of plants- strawberry, peas, arugula, bean, lima bean, cilantro, lettuce.

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on February 17, 2012 at 9:02pm

Cool. Yes, you're cycling and building that sweet bacteria. Before long ammonia & nitrites will zero out but you'll still have nitrates. Do you have plants now? If not it's a good time to start them.

Comment by David Schwinghamer on February 17, 2012 at 6:33pm

API, about 25 I think, yes 2", acording to my notes I started doing my indoor aquaponics on 1-10 so I guess Im still cycling?

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on February 17, 2012 at 3:51pm

It looks like you're cycling nicely, David. PH is good, ammonia isn't too bad and Nitrates are OK. I'm with you on the water change.

Keep testing, though, until you're through the cycling process because things can change so rapidly. When it's all stable you can back off on the testing, but you'll still want to test periodically to keep track of things. We go by fish, plant, and water appearance mostly, but we still test.

I'm curious, what brand kit do you have? And how many fish do you have now? I'm guessing they're about 1.5 - 2"?

Comment by David Schwinghamer on February 17, 2012 at 3:08pm

Here is all the numbers Ph- 7.6, Amm- 2.0, Ni-10+ it was bright pink, Na- 5

 

I havent been testing like I should, I just wanted to see if I leave it alone and watch the fish close. They always seemed happy and hungry. I tried the muratic acid trick and now am going to do a 1/3 water change to lower the Ni.

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on February 17, 2012 at 12:04pm

David, if you mean .10ppm you're OK, but if you mean 1.0ppm, that's quite high and they're alive because they're tilapia and are pretty tough fish. Think of it this way: They're swimming in their own waste, so it's like hiking around in the sewer with no muck boots or gas mask. Do a partial water change as soon as you can. How are your ammonia and nitrates?

Holly, you'll totally enjoy the GardenPool tour. The McClungs are always exploring new things. Check and see how their duckweed is going. We're set up to copy their idea if it's still working. Logically, it should be, but he may have encountered some of those surprises. :)

John, any consistency is best, but not always realistic. Water temps vary, and that no doubt has an effect on the readings. That said, in a home system it won't be enough to worry about.

Comment by Kellen Weissenbach on February 17, 2012 at 12:03pm

David,

Spot on.  Tilapia can tolerate quite high nitrite levels if acclimated slowly to them.  Actually, there are quite a few fish species that can.  I have an excellent academic study involving tilapia that actually tested for fatal nitrite thresholds and different acclimation periods around here somewhere.  I'll try to dig it up.

Comment by David Schwinghamer on February 17, 2012 at 11:32am

I did a water test this morning and noticed my Nitrites were extremely high like around 10+ which means... Reading about it fish should be dieing but they are still happy. A few days ago I noticed my tank water level was dropping so I added some water.

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