Comment

Comment by DJ Wambach on March 9, 2014 at 10:28pm

Found ammonia hydroxide at Ace Hardware. Put 1 1/2 cup into AP system of about 550 gal and spiked the level over 8 PPM. OPPS  now I am changing water out to lower it.

Comment by Jim Fisk on March 8, 2014 at 8:06am

My wife seems to recall we got our pure ammonia at the Dollar Store as well. Any healthy stream water will be loaded with the right bacteria if you can find one in your area. Here in the Cherokee National Forest we are surrounded by pristine mountain streams. That and a dozen goldfish is all we needed after a week of the ammonia. Keep in mind it takes 6 mos. to a year in an average size family feeding system to get stabilized. 2000+ gal in our case. Peeing in your system with all the meds, hormones and such that are in our every day life (food, meds, etc.) should be a last desperate choice IMHO. No warm blooded anything should go into your system. Not even mouse droppings. This is a closed system, not a constantly refreshing outdoor stream or lake. What makes AP safe, within limits, is the cold blooded fish aspect. You should even avoid bird droppings and thus a GH is your safest control with screens in the Summer.

Comment by Jeff S on March 7, 2014 at 8:39pm

Don't remember for sure where I got my ammonia but I don't remember searching for it. I'm thinking Kroger. You might find some at a janitorial supply company.

Comment by TCLynx on March 7, 2014 at 5:58pm

Ace Hardware may have pure ammonia.  Or you can look for powdered Ammonium Chloride (only takes like 1.13 grams to bring 100 gallons to 1 ppm) so make sure you can measure the amount you use as you actually don't want to over dose the ammonia.

Ammonium Chloride

Now if you are not too grossed out by it, you can produce your own ammonia supplement to cycle up a system "Pee Ponics"  If you seal the urine of a healthy person up in a bottle for several weeks the urea content will convert into ammonia, the pH will rise and kill off pathogens like e. coli which are likely to be in fresh urine in some small quantities.

Comment by Leo White Bear on March 7, 2014 at 5:12pm

It is gross and not too many people know this but, my first system was started from my cat box.  Yeah, yeah, I know but it worked very well.  Of course I did the FISH LESS cycling until I could find some straight ammonia to continue, but it worked.  Now, I add water from my inhouse aquaponic system in the spring form y out doors set ups

Comment by randy proctor on March 7, 2014 at 4:47pm

There are several things you can try and seaweed extract start my system. I've even heard of people pressing in their systems I would try it myself

Comment by Arthur King, Jr. on March 7, 2014 at 10:16am

I had a similar problem finding pure ammonia.  Try dollar stores.  I found it at a Dollar General.

Comment by DJ Wambach on March 7, 2014 at 9:14am

Thanks for the info on "Starter bacteria kits". Not having any luck in finding pure ammonia in town, any sugestions. What do you think of the starter kits that Aquapoinic source has on line?

As for the the valves they were needed to get enough water to the FT. The FT is the high point and has no valve restricting it at all.  

Comment by TCLynx on March 4, 2014 at 1:24pm

I have trouble recommending any sort of "starter" bacteria since anything that has been sealed up in a container for any length of time will not be aerobic anymore.

As Jim says, make sure there is a bypass so that you are not restricting the flow out of the pump.  I would actually disagree with Jim about one thing though, I would NOT restrict the flow into a pump either.  Pumps should be allowed to run at their most efficient which is to get as much flow through them as they are designed for.  That said, if you have some system elements that are up high and others that are lower, the ones that are lower will need valves at them so that you can still get enough flow to the high elements unless you are sending the full flow up to the highest point and branching out from there.  He is right that ball valves that are mostly closed off will be a restriction point and you may find you need to clean them often and that they are a costly element of the plumbing.  I too like to use a few extra elbows and bits of pipe to make low cost flow adjusters that in general, don't clog.

Comment by Jim Fisk on March 4, 2014 at 8:10am

Nope, I just used mountain stream water and pure ammonia to get things going. Also DJ if you are pumping any solids from the FTs into that manifold you will be clearing those ball valves at least twice a day as they get clogged up and also remember you should not restrict the output of a a pump but rather the input OR better yet, use a bypass back to the source, be it a sump or FT, to control flow. Restricting the output is bad for the pump (heat and wear) and will use quite a bit more power ($). Anything that slows down a motor results in increased amperage as the motor is designed to run at a specific rpm and it will draw a lot more power to try and get back to that rpm. Kind of a layman's explanation but essentially that is what happens. Just like your having to give your car more throttle to go up a hill and maintain the same motor rpm.

SO let it flow full out and use other methods to control flow. Besides those ball valves are the most expensive part of your plumbing and in my 2000+ gal system I have only one and that is to control the flow thru the ss coil in the woodstove so as to avoid too much creosote forming on a too cold pipe in a very hot stove. That is the only one. I balance the input to my 5 present GBs by simply rotating a 1" 90 at each bed. No restriction, just a balancing method and extra flow goes back (bypass) to the sump via my polyfill filter that removes algae at the same time.

BTW any filters, solids, algae, etc should have a bubbler stone in the bottom to make sure there are no anaerobic colonies setting up shop in there.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 18
• 19
• 20
• 21
• 22
• …
• 36
• Next ›
• Page