Higher Temps = Ammonia Spike????

[Tracy Langlinais]

Greetings all from South Central Louisiana.  I am still fishless cycling and I have a couple of questions. A few days ago Nitrates dropped to 0 ppm and Ammonia levels were at .25 ppm. In the past I've added 1.5 tsp of 26% ammonia and my Ammonia level would go to 1 ppm within 48 hours. This time I only added 1 tsp and 24 hrs later Ammonia spiked to 8 ppm! But the day it spiked water temp got up to 90 degrees. I checked again 24 hrs later and Ammonia dropped off to 0.5 ppm with hardly any Nitrates registering at all. Would water temp cause this kind of spike? I do have about 7 or 8 established plants in the media bed. Other than that, I've been waiting for the cycling to finish to adjust ph levels. Here are my readings since I started cycling.

This is my system rundown.  14 Square foot GB (gravel) ==> 160 gallon FT ==> 30 gallon swirl filter ==> 55 gallon collection tank ==> GB

Using well water. 

As always, your opinions are valued.

[Brad]

Hey Glad to see someone else on here from Louisiana.

I just read something on this from LSU. Ammonia is High PH

Systems start to balance then areation or other factors cause the Disolved Oxygen to drop. Which Causes the Ammonia to release and PH to go up. Remember Ammonia is NH3. So Nitrogen and Hydrogen is always in your water. And Heat encourages the reaction.

One word of caution I am newer at this than you are. So

But I have been working chemical plants and treating water for 30 years.

I have plans to build a cooler for my system in 9 days

 

[Tracy Langlinais]

Hi Brad, thanks for the reply. Can you give me more details about the cooler you are building. Sounds interesting.

Brad said:

Hey Glad to see someone else on here from Louisiana.

I just read something on this from LSU. Ammonia is High PH

Systems start to balance then areation or other factors cause the Disolved Oxygen to drop. Which Causes the Ammonia to release and PH to go up. Remember Ammonia is NH3. So Nitrogen and Hydrogen is always in your water. And Heat encourages the reaction.

One word of caution I am newer at this than you are. So

But I have been working chemical plants and treating water for 30 years.

I have plans to build a cooler for my system in 9 days

 

[Brad]

Sure I will be posting pictures as i get it done.

 

The plan.

I have 100 feet of 1 inch pipe from my water well to my house. Parish requirements.

Any ways if i dig it up or run beside it a 4 inch thin wall PVC pipe run the water from the pond into the 4 inch pipe then back into the pond.

I am going to then run the 1 inch pipe into the end of the 4 inch pipe and out the other end.

So the cool water PIPE will contact the warmer fish water 24 hours a day and the soil at 3 feet down where I am is cool so that should help as well.

I do plan on putting a 20 foot pipe or two sections this equals 53 gallons.

My circulation pump for cooler will be a walmart boat bilge pump. I want small so I do not shock the fish. I may cap the end then drill a hole in it so slow this even more. then open the hole if I need or can handle more.

 

There is a neat thing of thermal syphone that if I go in the bottom of the pond and close to the surface as the water cools it will auto pull the water from the pond and into pipe then cool water will condense and flow out the bottom.

Hope this helps.

Tracy Langlinais said:

Hi Brad, thanks for the reply. Can you give me more details about the cooler you are building. Sounds interesting.

Brad said:

Hey Glad to see someone else on here from Louisiana.

I just read something on this from LSU. Ammonia is High PH

Systems start to balance then areation or other factors cause the Disolved Oxygen to drop. Which Causes the Ammonia to release and PH to go up. Remember Ammonia is NH3. So Nitrogen and Hydrogen is always in your water. And Heat encourages the reaction.

One word of caution I am newer at this than you are. So

But I have been working chemical plants and treating water for 30 years.

I have plans to build a cooler for my system in 9 days

 

[Tracy Langlinais]

Where abouts in Louisiana are you Brad. I'm in south central, about 20 miles below Lafayette.

Brad said:

Sure I will be posting pictures as i get it done.

 

The plan.

I have 100 feet of 1 inch pipe from my water well to my house. Parish requirements.

Any ways if i dig it up or run beside it a 4 inch thin wall PVC pipe run the water from the pond into the 4 inch pipe then back into the pond.

I am going to then run the 1 inch pipe into the end of the 4 inch pipe and out the other end.

So the cool water PIPE will contact the warmer fish water 24 hours a day and the soil at 3 feet down where I am is cool so that should help as well.

I do plan on putting a 20 foot pipe or two sections this equals 53 gallons.

My circulation pump for cooler will be a walmart boat bilge pump. I want small so I do not shock the fish. I may cap the end then drill a hole in it so slow this even more. then open the hole if I need or can handle more.

 

There is a neat thing of thermal syphone that if I go in the bottom of the pond and close to the surface as the water cools it will auto pull the water from the pond and into pipe then cool water will condense and flow out the bottom.

Hope this helps.

Tracy Langlinais said:

Hi Brad, thanks for the reply. Can you give me more details about the cooler you are building. Sounds interesting.

Brad said:

Hey Glad to see someone else on here from Louisiana.

I just read something on this from LSU. Ammonia is High PH

Systems start to balance then areation or other factors cause the Disolved Oxygen to drop. Which Causes the Ammonia to release and PH to go up. Remember Ammonia is NH3. So Nitrogen and Hydrogen is always in your water. And Heat encourages the reaction.

One word of caution I am newer at this than you are. So

But I have been working chemical plants and treating water for 30 years.

I have plans to build a cooler for my system in 9 days

 

[Brad]

Just North of New Orleans middle of nowhere Maurepas LA

Tracy Langlinais said:

Where abouts in Louisiana are you Brad. I'm in south central, about 20 miles below Lafayette.

Brad said:

Sure I will be posting pictures as i get it done.

 

The plan.

I have 100 feet of 1 inch pipe from my water well to my house. Parish requirements.

Any ways if i dig it up or run beside it a 4 inch thin wall PVC pipe run the water from the pond into the 4 inch pipe then back into the pond.

I am going to then run the 1 inch pipe into the end of the 4 inch pipe and out the other end.

So the cool water PIPE will contact the warmer fish water 24 hours a day and the soil at 3 feet down where I am is cool so that should help as well.

I do plan on putting a 20 foot pipe or two sections this equals 53 gallons.

My circulation pump for cooler will be a walmart boat bilge pump. I want small so I do not shock the fish. I may cap the end then drill a hole in it so slow this even more. then open the hole if I need or can handle more.

 

There is a neat thing of thermal syphone that if I go in the bottom of the pond and close to the surface as the water cools it will auto pull the water from the pond and into pipe then cool water will condense and flow out the bottom.

Hope this helps.

Tracy Langlinais said:

Hi Brad, thanks for the reply. Can you give me more details about the cooler you are building. Sounds interesting.

Brad said:

Hey Glad to see someone else on here from Louisiana.

I just read something on this from LSU. Ammonia is High PH

Systems start to balance then areation or other factors cause the Disolved Oxygen to drop. Which Causes the Ammonia to release and PH to go up. Remember Ammonia is NH3. So Nitrogen and Hydrogen is always in your water. And Heat encourages the reaction.

One word of caution I am newer at this than you are. So

But I have been working chemical plants and treating water for 30 years.

I have plans to build a cooler for my system in 9 days

 

[Bradly]

Hey Brad

That might work.  I saw a similar design in air conditioning system once... they used the air in a building that was being expelled to the outside to "effect" the temperature of the new replacement air that the units were bringing in from the outside.  (Law requires that so much fresh air be brought in from outside-but then the temperature inside the conditioned building would suffer.)  So they came up with pretty much what you are going to do with water.

 

[Brad]

I was Hurricaned and Flooded so I did not get to do anything on the heat exchanger.

Will try again next hitch home. Flooding did get 2 inches over my pond that pointed out some problems there. But easy fix.

[Tracy Langlinais]

Sorry to hear Isaac got to you Brad. Everything back to normal now?

Brad said:

I was Hurricaned and Flooded so I did not get to do anything on the heat exchanger.

Will try again next hitch home. Flooding did get 2 inches over my pond that pointed out some problems there. But easy fix.

[Brad]

I hope so I am 6600 mile away in Oman, Middle East.

Most everything came out Ok. Flooded my classic 66 Ford because I did not expect 8 feet of water out of a Cat 1 wimp storm. There is a picture out the back door in the photo section. Worlds largest Aquaponics system. House is fine, family is fine. Things can be replaced.

Still smilen