Loop Siphon

[Adam Shivers]

How do I regulate my loop siphon?  Anyone know tips, tricks, formulas, ratios, anything?

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Adam. I also did fishless cycling using Urea bought at the a local plant shop. I dosed up to 4ppm letting it fall to 2ppm before re-dosing back to 4ppm. After 10 days i found that after a 24 hour period the system would "digest" all of the 4ppm dose to 0ppm. After 12 days of dosing my readings were 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and 0ppm nitrate over 24 hours so the system was fully cycled. I continued to dose for 2 more days then i added fish and the rest is history.

Adam Shivers said:

yes I had about 15 fish die in there so ammonia would have been crazy at one point. I definately need to come up with some form of pure ammonia to continue cycling fishless. I wouldn't need to dose until I had no ammonia show up on tests. right?

does the test kit tell me how to bring the ammonia down (to make plants happy)?

[Harold Sukhbir]

Adam you can read here; http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/how-do-you-cycle

And please take the time to study our rules of thumb.

[Adam Shivers]

This is good info... I have had this particular siphon regulated for quite some time but it's my first one and is probably 75% fluke. I need information like this for future attempts-thanks! a longer intake screen like a pipe with holes? I wonder if my form of media guard is part of the reason my siphon worked. u think? check out my pics ... comment on what you think might be wrong. or right.    I used to have a literal loop but now it looks more like a sickle. I don't remember for sure but my pics might show my new and old siphons, both. thanks!

[Adam Shivers]

Yes thankk you TC has really helped me to see (what I have so far) about cycling fishless... now my fish died and was not planned but I may as well not continue. So I am cycling fishless. I am pretty sure I am there so that I can replace fish again soon but I need to dose and do much testing to be sure.

Harold Sukhbir said:

Adam you can read here; http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/how-do-you-cycle

And please take the time to study our rules of thumb.

[Adam Shivers]

Do you cycle fishless?
Harold Sukhbir said:

Adam you can read here; http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/how-do-you-cycle

And please take the time to study our rules of thumb.

[Adam Shivers]

is it important to have water drain into FT on the oposite end from where I pump it? can it get stagnated at all if I don't? I was wondering if fish stir it when they get applied to the system.

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Adam,

It is always the best idea to create the maximum water movement in AP. When water moves it carries our Dissolved oxygen with it, which promotes the growth of the "good" bacteria and at the same time inhibits the growth of the "bad" ones. It can also help to reduce algae buildup and prevent solids buildup. So if the inlet and outlet are as far away from each other water is forced to travel it's maximum distance, which is always preferable in AP. However if you have high flow rates in a small area the placement becomes less and less critical.

[TCLynx]

Most people try to spread such things out to make sure there are no dead spots.  An aeration device can help make sure the circulation is good enough to avoid problems though.

[Adam Shivers]

thanks both of you, I am excited because I'm about to revamp my position. I will have better access to my FT so that these things are more workable. I will place my air device in and all... should I place the air stone on drain end, pump end or somewhere in between?

[TCLynx]

I'm not sure.

 

[Adam Shivers]

Hey does anyone know the most direct rout to figuring out how to grow/produce enough food to feed a 5 member family? plan ideas, etc.?

 I have some ideas and yet have NEVER done anything this complete before.

     My family is in a transition that will turn everything around for us. My wife has the rent covered and it is my job (not that she doesn't help with everything) to calculate plan and implement something to cover all food + enough to sell to cover the rest of the bills. this way we have a plan in place for if the savings are deminished. This is something I will post several places to explain for redundancies as I am raising the chances that I catch someone that has a solution, has done this very thing, or has any ideas.

By the way, this is an exciting thing for our family and not a scary one. I have a lot of support from people as we are making this transition as they see the importance of this and what it can do for others that have less support than we do!

They may also not have support like this community in APG that I have been blessed with and we want to "teach them to fish". Thank you everyone!

[TCLynx]

Adam, you will probably get a more cohesive response if you don't ask the same question in all the threads.  If people answer you in different threads they may not have read the other one and you won't get the benefit of people building on the answers of others, instead you are likely to get a lot of repeats.