Cycling update

[Eleven11]

1-20-11

When I first added the 7 comet goldfish and 3 small koi a few weeks back, the ammonia level came up to maybe .25 ppm a few days later. I kept an eye on it and noticed that it went to zero and stayed there so I started helping out with some ammonia supplement (DIY of course ). I've been adding enough ammonia to get up to .50 pmm and it comes down to zero by day's end. If I don't add any at all then it seems to stay at zero even though the water is around 70F and the fish get fed 3 or 4 times a day. Koi pellets and goldfish flakes... not a lot each time. Maybe a few pinches of flakes and 8 pellets max.

The inside of the fish tank is lined with green algae but the water is pretty clear since I can now see the bottom and the air stones clearly. It looks like the AP 20 air pump is doing a fine job. I was concerned that maybe it was too much air before but now that I can see whats going on, it looks just right with the 12 inch long air stone and 5 smaller stones.

I have (5) 40 gallon beds that are 12 inches deep and planted seedlings in each bed.

Checking nitrates yesterday and today, they appear to be between 10 to 20 pmm although these colors are really close. It definitely isn't more than 20 pmm because there is no sign of any red tinge in the test tube. I haven't checked nitrites since I have nitrates.

The plants are looking ok but growing slowly so I've been making Kelp meal tea and adding it to the water.

If all goes well, I am planning on adding 10 tilapia this Sunday.

[Eleven11]

The tomato, green bean, and cucumber plants look a bit yellow instead of healthy green. Radishes and broccoli are looking ok though.

Anyone have similar problems during start up?

I've been adding some kelp meal tea each day and today I added a few tablespoons of worm castings to each grow bed.

Would it be a bad idea to add small amounts of this fish fertilizer, diluted in a quart of water?

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R ... ogId=10053

[Eleven11]

I added 10 large tilapia fish on Sunday and removed the goldfish and the koi that I could net. The tilapia have been fasting (except for algae maybe) until this morning when I added some romaine.

The nitrites had been purple but this morning's test shows blue.

[keith_r]

hold off feeding until the nitrites drop..if they go up much more, i'd salt to 3ppt

[Eleven11]

hold off feeding until the nitrites drop..if they go up much more, i'd salt to 3ppt

Yeah, they've been fasting the past few days. I just took another test about 20 minutes ago and things are looking better.

[Eleven11]

I figured it was ok to start feeding the 10 blue nile tilapia yesterday since the nitrites were down. I gave them about 7 large romaine leaves and later some omega one medium cichlid pellets I got from Petsmart.

Here's this morning's test... PH is hard to read so I took a test with a pool tester and it said 7.2 which is down from 7.5 about 4or 5 days ago.