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scotty435
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Posted: Feb 8th, '18, 06:29 |
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Joined: Aug 26th, '10, 07:17 Posts: 9091 Gender:
Are you human?: YES
Location: Oregon, USA
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I think you have the idea, depends on what you're goal is when you test. I'll usually test what's going back to the fish tank because I'm more concerned about ammonia and nitrite toxicity and it's effect on the fish, than how much nitrate is available to the plants. For me that testing happens in the sump. It's not that critical in most cases.
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Cragster
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Posted: Feb 8th, '18, 14:50 |
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Joined: Apr 8th, '17, 21:05 Posts: 7 Gender:
Are you human?: no
Location: Crete greece
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Thanks for the input guys. I know through reading all systems differ . Here's what I've done. I filled the FT and GB up and let it sit to degass for 1 week. Ran the system for 1 more week to fix leaks and solve some problems. Added 4 gold fish and a test raft of lettuce seeds. I test for PH it's at 7, but no ammonia and no nitrates and no nitrates hence the question where to test. I know the FT late for only 4 fish. But will wait another week to see before adding more fish
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dlf_perth
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Posted: Feb 8th, '18, 20:32 |
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Joined: Sep 29th, '14, 13:15 Posts: 2146 Location: Australia Gender:
Are you human?: mostly
Location: Perth, West Aust
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> don't add any more fish until you are sure the cycling has started.
should read...
cycling is **completely finished** and bacteria is able to handle the load of additional/lots of fish.
> Adding too many fish before the system has got going will see...
stressed and dead fish....
4 gold fish is an OK place to be for a month or so - they are small so things will go slowly. Don't be surprised if you don't see anything happen in your test kit. You could add a few more little ones but dont add anything like TIlapia etc at this early stage. Don't go over board when you do add fish. Avoid buying large lots of 30, 50 etc.
_________________ . Darren ( dlf_perth )
May the fish sh*t and the plants grow.....
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Cragster
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Posted: Feb 11th, '18, 00:29 |
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Joined: Apr 8th, '17, 21:05 Posts: 7 Gender:
Are you human?: no
Location: Crete greece
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Cheers for the input. I will hold off before putting in more fish. Goldfish are fine at the moment. And I think it will be a little slow as it's winter here and my water temp is around 14C . gives me time to build a solar heater to warm the water up. As the sun is hot in the day . The system drops 1 degree at night and heats up in the day. The test I did with a solar hot water recirculating heat exchanger heated a 55 gal up to 30C in 3 hours. So I'm building a smaller one to slowly bring the temp up to mid to low 20s
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Cragster
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Posted: Jun 9th, '18, 23:08 |
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Joined: Apr 8th, '17, 21:05 Posts: 7 Gender:
Are you human?: no
Location: Crete greece
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Well guys I'm stuck and need advice . System has been up and running for 4 months now. And still nothing . I added 4 more fish as they where given to me. Ph is between 7 and 7.2. Ammonia 0.25 to 0.50 nitrites 0 nitrates 0 . Testing with api master kit. Just tested with the strips from api just in case the master kit was faulty. And the same results . My plant growth is ok. Only basil and a few tomatoe plants in there. Ammonia has been at these levels for a month. I'm really stuck for ideas. Any help would be appreciated Thanks Craig
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dlf_perth
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Posted: Jun 10th, '18, 10:35 |
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Joined: Sep 29th, '14, 13:15 Posts: 2146 Location: Australia Gender:
Are you human?: mostly
Location: Perth, West Aust
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most likely inadequate biofilter.... the conversion of ammonia to nitrates is not efficient. you probably need at least 200-400L of wet media/bio-objects for a 1000L tank - more if you overstock your fish.
getting 0 for nitrites is OK - probably means that what is being produced is being converted. And in a low producing system you can have nitrates = 0 if the plants are using it. (must be case if plants are growing)
Looking at your posts it seems you lack enough media or bio-surfaces in the system.
You are just running from the tank through the drum filters to the DWC ?
one option is to fill a drum full of rock media or bottle caps etc to give the bacterial a better location to host. (IMO small rocks would be best as long as they are intert, not limestone etc). The other option would be to add a media grow bed into the system - you can use some large tubs and put these before the DWC.
_________________ . Darren ( dlf_perth )
May the fish sh*t and the plants grow.....
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