A Complete Cycle - With Pond Water Assist

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

I am fishless cycling my indoor 100 liter aquarium with a 100 liters of media. I have heard in this forum that pond water will assist the process along. There just so happens to be a Koi pond in the garden of my building so figured that will be a good source of bacteria. The purpose of this discussion is to document the progress of cycling with daily measurements and get any suggestion to try to speed things along. I will update with measurements when I am home to do so.

Starting point is 100 liters of NYC tap water with a PH of 7.0 treated with 2 teaspoons of ClorAm-X to neutralize the chlorine. The water has been in the tank and growbed while i tested the system for a week prior to the start of cycling.

Day 1 added 6ml of NH3 and 600ml of pond water (PH 6.8 | NH3 0ppm | N2 0ppm | N3 +80ppm)

Day 2 Added 1300 ml pond water then tested [PH 6.8 | NH3 1ppm | N2 0ppm | N3 3ppm] then added 3ml of NH3

Hit up my youtube channel if you want to see the system

https://www.youtube.com/user/AquaponicsNYC

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Day 14-21 No changes. I purchased and added Tetra Safe Start on day 20 which says it contains enough Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira to make a 30 gallon aquarium ready to process ammonia so that you can add fish.  However, I already have 2ppm ammonia so I can't do that. Now I have to wait to see if these bacteria do anything, if they don't I can assume that there is some toxic situation in my system.

I

[RupertofOZ]

Your system is entirely on course to cycle... all you need now... is patience...

Ask for a refund on the bottled bacteria... it wont do diddly squat...

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

We humans tend to want to control life, don't we. I here by release control to Mother Nature! ;)

[RupertofOZ]

You should start to see the ammonia levels drop soon, and rapidly... at about the same time you should see nitrite levels rise sharply... then fall almost as quickly... with a subsequent rise in nitrates, or an explosion of plant growth as the plants gobble them up...

As you northern cousins are coming into winter, and temperature has a direct effect on the cycling process... you could be another 2-3 weeks before your levels zero out...

 

But having seeded with the pond water it could happen a lot sooner...

 

P.S ... oxygenation will also speed up the process... so increasing your aeration may also be beneficial...

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

I have a pitcher with about a quart of water and some expanded clay that I have sitting on my seedling starter heating pad that is at about 80 degrees with an aeration feed in it. I started that about 4 days ago with some water from the system so i figure that will pop first. The water in my system is running about 72 and the grow bed is at 74. The HPS bulb seems to be heating everything given my air temp is 68.

Pics of the system since i haven't shared them yet:

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Day 29 No Nitrites, Ammonia at 1-2 ppm.  I have heard that you see a spike in patience on day 29 and what do you know  patience is at 1,000 ppm.

[TCLynx]

How often are you pumping?  Is it just a 15 minutes per hour?  Or is there a siphon?

If your drains allow (will keep the bed constant flood but won't overflow), I might suggest that if you turn the pump on 24/7 and run constant flood for a bit as that can sometimes speed cycling a tiny bit.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

It is flood and drain so there is a siphon, once a day, for a few hours, i run it continuously and then once an hour the rest of the time. I'm ok waiting as I have no fish yet, the plants are young and I can always augment my system with maxcrop liquid seaweed and some pond water that has 100ppm of nitrates.

[TCLynx]

If there is a siphon in there, I would let the pump run 24/7 and just let the siphon take care of the flood and drain (at least until you are cycled up.)  Leaving the bed empty of water for most of the hour will greatly slow your cycling.  Most people running with timers have a slow drain instead of a siphon and so the bed still has some water in it most of the hour while it slowly drains.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

10-4 will do.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Day 35 Nitrites!  

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Nitrites peek at +5.0 on day 38 and I went on a trip out of town.

It is day 41 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 and Nitrates: 10ppm

Re-dosing with 3ml ammonia to see how quick the bacteria respond