Fish and Cycling

[squirrel warrior]

Hello, I am new here and have been doing Aquaponics off and on for approx 10-15 years. I am located in S.E. Wisconsin and my system restarts every spring in my open air garden. I use Blue gill from a hatchery native to Wisconsin. The problem i have is you can only get the Blue Gill from the local Hatchery until the end of May. That means you need to keep them alive until your systems cycles. Depending on the weather which we have had some cold days in May and June, sometimes down to the 40's, 30's. Does anyone know a way to filter the water that the fish are in,while waiting for my system to warm up and start developing the necessary bacteria? I know it can take a few weeks to develop. I use a 330 gallon tote as my fish tank. Plus i can not place my plants into the grow beds until i'm sure the outside temperature starts to stabilize and warm up. I have tried various filter types that failed and some got expensive to keep running. Thank you for your help and advice.

[John Silver]

The easiest option for you is to install a drum filter and a biofilter, now the prices for these filters have dropped a lot and you can order these filters in Korea or Vietnam.