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Comment by Matt Miskinnis on January 8, 2013 at 10:02pm

ugh, frustrated looking at my ammonia levels.  I think I really screwed myself adding to much ammonia starting my cycle.  I have done a complete water change and my ammonia levels are still off the charts.  I added about 20 plants (some lettuce and a cilantro plant) as I read you are supposed to have some plants in the system while cycling.  I also bought an aquarium heater, but it is inadequate for the size of my FT and Sump, so I'm probably going to have to buy two more just to get it to size of my system and keep the water warmer.  Am I just screwed right now having high ammonia and having it cycle itself out naturally?  Just bummed that I screwed this part up and should have read up more on how much ammonia I should have used.  Errrrrr.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on January 6, 2013 at 6:56pm

@Robert, I've posted a few pics on this thread, but not the new "updates" I've done.  I'll put some new ones up soon.

Comment by Robert Rowe on January 6, 2013 at 6:50pm

@Matt Miskinnis

Do you have pictures of you system as built so far?

I am curious about your system.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on January 6, 2013 at 4:25pm

As the never ending tinkering continues....  I bought another Bulkhead fitting for the FT, and installed it a few inches lower as I was concerned only having maybe an inch or so left before the tank would overflow.  I left the original bulkhead in and will use that as an emergency drain if something catastrophic occurs (always good to have a backup), so now my tank has a good 5+ inches before it reaches the top so I'm happy with that, so next week or so I figure on creating a cover for the tank so I can keep jumpy fish in and garbage out (any ideas?) .  I also dug a hole about a foot deep for the sump so the sump is about 50/50 in the dirt.  I also took the time to drain 80% of my water out of the system when doing all these adjustments, I was hoping to get rid of the excess Ammonia I put in.  I did a water check and am still concerned at the high Ammonia. (see pic)  Am I just stuck with this Ammonia until it goes away naturally? 

Comment by Bob Campbell on January 3, 2013 at 9:55am

I just downloaded this program.   I have not spent time to learn how to set it up and use it, but my initial impression is that it may be a good tool for adjusting nutrients.  It's oriented toward hydroponics, but through the customization windows I believe it could be made to work with aquaponics and bioponics.  Here's a link to HydroBuddy

Comment by John Malone on January 2, 2013 at 9:17pm

@Matt

Yup - looks like your ammonia is waaaaaay off the charts.   I remember those days.

 

Having a higher pH is actually beneficial when cycling your system as the bacteria prefer a higher pH.   However,  you really want to get it where you want it before adding the fish because fish are quite fussy about how quickly you change the pH.  Even small changes of water parameters make my fish unhappy, and unhappy fish become sick fish and sick fish become dead fish.   (I lost a whole tank of 40 fish my first go around.  Not fun.  Not fun at all!)

Comment by John Malone on January 2, 2013 at 9:07pm

@Matt

A warning : don't get hydroponics mixed up with aquaponics.  It's a different science and technique altogether, from what I've read.

In this case, I'd be very cautious about using any chemicals that you don't know what they are, such as the pH Up and pH Down.   ref : http://tinyurl.com/aaa9pqp

Because of the (future) fish and beneficial bacteria in your system you have to be really careful what chemicals you add.  I'd strongly recommend that you stick with chemicals that are known and well defined, such as muriatic (hydrochloric) acid.

And muriatic acid is super cheap too.

If you are concerned about how much money you're laying out at the moment, don't despair, it does get better, but at the start, when you are getting set up, it seems like you are always reaching for the wallet.

Good luck

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on January 2, 2013 at 4:37pm

@John, thanks for the info, great minds mush think alike, because I too found the same articles 

Now I'll have to go and get the fresh water color charts (it never seems to end).  The good news is, I do have a PH tester kit I got from the hydroponics store and it also came with the PH up and PH down chemicals so I'm set on that part.  I did what you mentioned and took out about a half of my water from the system and added new water to it so hopefully when I test tomorrow it wont be as high as it was today (below are my ph and ammonia samples I took before changing out the water), granted it's looking at the saltwater chart but you can get an idea of what I got going so far...

Comment by John Malone on January 2, 2013 at 3:32pm

@Matt

My first thought would be if there wasn't a difference, they wouldn't make different kits.  But a quick bit of googling seems to come to the conclusion that the chemicals are the same, but the resulting colors will be different, so you need the Freshwater color charts to read the results.

I quote: "The only difference is the color chart cards are not the same. I have both freshwater and salt kits"   ref: http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/test-kits/41915-use-sw-master-kit...

Another forum said that API will send you the freshwater color charts for a nominal fee.   Or maybe go begging at your local fish shop and see if they've got some cards lying about that they don't mind giving you.

It also looks like the Saltwater kit doesn't have the low range pH test that you REALLY need.   The good thing here is that you can buy this as a separate kit all by itself.  ref: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=13523...

Hope this helps.

Comment by Matt Miskinnis on January 2, 2013 at 3:20pm

Thanks John.  I thought I was under dosing as it didn't seem like it was a large amount I was putting in LOL.  I did buy an API saltwater master test kit, as I was at a reef store.  Will the saltwater testing kit be all that different?  I already opened the darn thing so I don't think I can return it.

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