A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Its been 6 weeks… trouble cycling.

6 weeks running my system. I have about 1000 gallon system hybrid system - media and dwr. (500 gallon fish tank) I have plants growing and even flowering but my Nitrites are still at zero. My water temperature is 76. My Ph is 6.8-7. I've been adding microbe lift every other day (1 1/2 cups). about 3 weeks ago I saw some change to the nitrates when i was running at ph of 7.4 but the ph dropped and killed it. I've got the ph back up to 6.8-7 but it seems to be a fighting battle. It is safe to run my system at a ph of 7.4 ish? :(

I have a very sterile environment inside my pool house. (The pool is a salt based system so I don' have chlorine affecting the air.) Any suggestions? The leaves where yellowing so I added chelated iron which seems to be what dropped my ph. The new leaves are coming in green and wonderful but the lower leaves are still yellowing. Do I need to add any other nutrients to help the leaves? Magnesium? Do I forget about the health of the plants for now and just focus on the nitrates? (Yes, I have fish in the system. Goldfish and Koi. And Worms. The ammonia is high so the fish don't like it but the lack of nitrites don't seem to be eating it either.

Suggestions?…..

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kristen Lamb on December 16, 2013 at 7:38pm

Awesome! What feed do you recommend from your store and I will order it.

Permalink Reply by TCLynx on December 16, 2013 at 8:06pm

I don't usually sell feed, I specialize in plumbing fittings and supplements mostly. The feed I use for my catfish and bluegill is Aquamax 4000 which is a purina mills product with 36% protein. If you google it you can get to their web site and do a search for feed stores in your area that are Purina dealers and you can call them up to see how much it would cost for you to get a bag put on the next truck delivery for you. They are 50 lb bags but with over 100 fish you could probably use most of it up in a reasonable time. (You don't want to keep fish food sitting around too long though 4-6 months is the max I would recommend keeping fish feed on hand unless you freeze it.) They also make different formulations and pellet sizes as well.

Or you could look into what feeds Koi breeders use since they are likely to be taylored more for growing out the really pretty carp (which are basically what goldfish are.)