Day 29... Nitrates 40, Nitrites > 10 and Ammonia 3

The growth in the greenhouse is fantastic.

ALL of the red beans that I seeded have sprouted... and not just sprouted... 3" tall.  But there are too many, so I'll have to take some out of the bed and put them in the old raised bed.

The bell pepper is covered with new growth.  Yesterday, I pruned all of the old buds to encourage new buds.

The tomatoes and banana peppers don't have any signs of shock.  I'll know more about those after a few days.

The strawberry is the most amazing.  Planted, seemed to be dead, new center growth and, now, the new leaf growth is spreading out.  Bright green.

The cheapo lettuce is up to 2" tall now.  I will move some of them around the bed once some of them are bigger.

Now for the numbers...

• ammonia is 3 parts per million (I added an 1/8 cup of ammonia)
• nitrates are 40 parts per million
• nitrites are off the scale (>10 parts per million)
• chlorine 0
• Baton Rouge water is NOT hard
• alkalinity is 120 to 180 (ideal)
• ph is 7.4 to 7.8 (dropped a little)

Day 27... Nitrates Are 20 Parts Per Million

The nitrates are on the scale! YEA!

• ammonia is still more than 1, but less than 3 parts per million
• nitrates are 20 parts per million
• nitrites are off the scale (>10 parts per million)
• chlorine has always been 0
• Baton Rouge water is NOT hard
• alkalinity is 120 to 180 (ideal)
• ph is 7.8 

The cycle is almost done.  I haven't added any ammonia in a week and the levels are finally dropping.  The ammonia has to come down to zero and the nitrites to zero as well.  Once the ammonia gets to below 1, I'm going to start adding ammonia again.

This means that I am closer to getting fish.  Lafayette, Louisiana has a fish hatchery with coppernose brim and hybrid brim.  Its about a 45 mile drive... maybe next weekend or the weekend after that. 

My Venturi Aerator and Pump Timer

The design I chose for the water return underneath the growbed that feeds directly into the fish tank provides a fair amount of aeration, but I have been worried about it not being enough when I add fish to the tank.  Many of the aquaponics blogs say that more O2 helps with the cycle too.

Okay, so how do I aerate? Aquarium bubbler(s) or venturi setup?  My water line into the growbed is actually throttled way back, so I could easily add a T to the line from the pump and throw water back into the fish tank with some extra oxygen.

I found a YouTube video called, "simple "T" venturi...cheap and effective".  My plumbing was a 3/4 T, a 3/4 ball valve, a 3/4 90 deg turn and then a 3/4 to 1" T, a 1" inner cap, a 2' long 1" pipe and a bic pen.

The picture on the left shows the hole in the end cap and the pen with a strip of duct tape to help with a simple seal.

The venturi is simple.  The T will face up and down.  Put the 1" cap in the top of the T and insert the pen to the point where the pen is past the opening for the 3/4 side tube.  This way the water will flow from a 3/4 to a larger diameter, 1" tube and pull a vacuum on the pen.  Air will be mixed as the water flows down into the tank.

Timer on the Water Pump
I also added an outdoor 24 timer that has 15 minute increments on the water pump.  I set it to turn on 15 minutes every hour.  Since my water is fed from the top of the growbed I had to add a small hole to the stand tube so that when the water cuts off, the bed isn't half full of water.  A small hole should be enough to drain it between pump cycles.

Update - March 1, 2013 I pulled the water pump off of the timer.  The cycle isn't perfect and fish will require the constant air. The drop light is on it now set to turn on at night and off during the day.  The south Louisiana nights are below 45, but our days are 65+.

Update - April 1, 2013 I put the growbed water pump back on the timer.  I have 2 pumps now, a 300 gph pump wide open and feeding the fish tank and a 650 gph throttled way back feeding the growbed for 15 minutes an hour.  FYI, my system is now CHIFT PIST.

New plants, Seeds and a Walkway

Yesterday's cycle readings were showing trace Nitrates!  There was also a rise in nitrites and a reduction in ammonia.  It will be interesting to measure this evening.

I took a closer look at everything today in the first sunshine that we have had in days.  The strawberry plant has new growth in the center and the pepper plant is COVERED with new growth.  I had seeded some red beans last week.  They are sprouting.  Amazing.

So with the cycle almost finished and all of the new growth, I decided to proceed with the next phase of the project.  More plants and a timer on the fill/drain.

I bought a pack of lettuce seeds and a pack of chili peppers.  I also did a no-no and bought several seeded plants, 3 tomatoes and 3 banana peppers.  I put the stuff that should get tall on the north side and the lettuce on the south side.

Our area has had record rain for this winter so my yard is saturated.  I bought 12 concrete 16"X16" stepping stones in a red brick pattern to help with keeping my feet dry.  I put a few as a walkway to the garden and the others went around the garden.

Day 25 ... Nitrites and Ammonia at 3

Baton Rouge is rainy, but warmer today. 70 deg high.  They predicted 20 mph winds and from the looks of things we may have gotten some gusts.  The plastic had pulled out from under one side of the bungee cord. Easy fix.

The water in the fish tank is also 70 deg which should help with the cycle.  I have the fill/drain going with about 15 minutes from the end of the siphon to the end of the next siphon.

It looks like the nitrites are starting to rise.... YEA!

• ammonia is still about 3 parts per million
• nitrates are 0 (but MORE COLOR)
• nitrites are 3 parts per million
• chlorine has always been 0
• Baton Rouge water is NOT hard
• alkalinity is 120 to 180 (ideal)
• ph is 7.8 (lost some color)

Plants Update
I noticed that the pepper plant MAY NOT be dead.  It appears to have new growth or at least the growth looks new.

The lettuce is growing and more is appearing.  An aquaponics blog DID say that lettuce was the easiest thing to start.  The biggest plant is about an inch tall and has 3 leaves.  There are at least 20 plants... too close together.  I'll do something about that later.  Maybe.

The strawberry still looks sickly.  It has 2 green leaves and several brown ones.  I have other plants waiting in the wings, so I've been threatening to dig it up if it doesn't straighten up and fly right!

The red beans aren't sprouting.  I've read that red beans should be sprouted in peat and then moved once they have growth, but who cares?  I still haven't cycled.

Day 23... so begins the rise of the nitrites

I check my water every day right before it gets dark.  Today's numbers were only slightly different than a few days ago.

• ammonia is about 3
• nitrates are 0 (but the indicator has COLOR)
• nitrites are 1 part per million
• chlorine has always been 0
• Baton Rouge water is NOT hard
• alkalinity is 120 to 180 (ideal)
• ph is 7.8 to 8.4

The pepper (pictured) still looks pathetic, the strawberry's leaves are darker and smaller.  The new lettuce looks the same and red beans I seeded still haven't sprouted.

Water Heater and Tarp Wrap

With a 6 hour freeze coming last night I went out and bought a grey 9'x11' heavy duty, UV resistant tarp from Harbor Freight.  I also bought a 300 watt aquarium heater from PetCo.

I hung the water heater dead center in the fish tank.  With the tank being made of plastic I can't exactly put it up against the side or bottom of the tank.  If you are wondering.. the tank is 4' long x 3' wide x 3 1/2' tall and contains about 200 gallons of water.

I cut the tarp into 4 equal parts and added grommets to the corners and halfway down the sides. Each piece is 4' 4" x 5' 4".

Using the fish tank opening as the "front", I put 2 tarps on the other 3 sides using the tarps long-ways.  I overlapped them a bit to make a better seal and used zip ties to mount them to the top of the growbed and the bottom of the fish tank.

I used a third piece to cover the "front".  Since I need to be able to get in and out of the tank to test the water or feed my future fish, I decided to use D rings with spring locks on this piece of tarp.  Since the D-rings don't fit around the tote's steel, I made a loop out of a zip-tie around the steel and left it loose enough to connect the D-ring easily.

The tarp is still a little loose and to keep the middle from ballooning out in the wind, I put some cinderblocks at the seams.  It works well.

Now my fish tank looks like it is covered in duct tape.  Picture is coming.

Need a More Sturdy Siphon

I discovered that my cheap, plastic bottle siphon wasn't ending the siphon.  Why?  The pull of a siphon isn't incredibly strong, but when you weaken the bottle by cutting slots for water flow, it started to bend the feet over time.  The 4 "feet" were bending and lowered the minimum height of the water to where the siphon couldn't break.

It also seems that the constant water flow may have dried out the bed.  I pulled out the siphon and started on a new sturdy one.

I built the standard bell siphon ... no snorkel.  Just a 2" tube, 9" long with a cap.  3 1" slots out of the bottom.  After a monitoring for a few water cycles, the new siphon works as planned.  15 minute fill and siphon.

These are my 3 siphons.  The 2 on the right worked better because the holes on the bottom allowed air into the bottle which helped break the water flow.

New Growth and New Strawberry Plant

I added a pack of $.20 lettuce seeds last Sunday.  I figured, what the heck.

Yesterday morning I was checking on my bell pepper.  Not great.  The plant is green, but not doing well.


Oh... the lettuce has sprouted.  You have to look kind of hard, but there they are.

I decided to add a strawberry plant from my raised bed.  The strawberries had almost taken over the bed last year and this one had actually spouted outside of the raised bed.

Once I got the dirt off, the plant was a snap to add to growbed.

It is supposed to freeze for 6 hours tonight.  A test of the heater, treble light and greenhouse.

Day 21... Cycling is a Waiting Game

Cycling is a waiting game.  The question that I had was, to pee or not to pee.

Many of the aquaponics sites talk about using urine, but with a warning.  No medications, no caffeine.  I take high blood pressure and diabetes meds... and I like my caffeine.  Ace Hardware sells raw ammonia in the detergents section for $2.15 for a gallon.  This is a no brainer.

I got my water testing supplies from PetCo.  One container of 25 ammonia testing strips and 25 6-way nitrate, nitrite, chlorine, ph, alkalinity and hardness.  Together they were 34 dollars.


21 days and still waiting to cycle.

• ammonia is about 3
• nitrates are 0
• nitrites are finally .5
• chlorine has always been 0
• Baton Rouge water is NOT hard
• alkalinity is 120 to 180 (ideal)
• ph is 7.8 to 8.4