Aquaponics: Day 7

Current Progress

After some additional reading, I realized that I jumped the gun on our trial-run aquaponics system.  Though there are varying opinions on the subject of 'System Cycling,' the preponderance of evidence by those that appear to maintain success in their systems shows that system cycling should take between 3-6 weeks.  This means that the aquaponics system is not in balance (microbes converting ammonia to nitrites and then nitrates) until about the 4 week mark.

There are things that can be done to expedite the process, like:

• Adding pure ammonia to the system; don't add fish yet - high levels of ammonia will kill them very quickly.  This will encourage the natural airborne microbes to flourish in the ammonia rich environment and begin producing the nitrites and nitrates for the system.
• Obtain established microbial cultures from: 
• local ponds; I have seen suggestions to use a bucket of pond water or take a few stones from the pond; this would have the microbes present.  The down side is that you also get things in the water that you may not want in your system.
• other cycled aquaponics systems; a handful of medium or water
• filters from fish tanks; the filters will have the microbes, however they may also have any lingering fish disease - make sure the tank is healthy

However, we did not do that.  I guess I was a little impatient and wanted to get it going; the next time I will wait.  But, so far so good - though, it could probably be better.

Here are some Day 7 pics:

You can see the green bell peppers in the upper right are really coming up strong.  However, the tomato sprigs are there, but not jumping up either.

Our cabbage looks decent, but they took a beating from a very heavy Mississippi rain.  The cucumbers are looking pretty good.

 So, comparing the cucumbers (above pic, in the middle section next to the white bell cyphon) and the cucumbers growing in our traditional potting soil mix, it is obvious that the potting soil mix is doing a little better.  Currently, I attribute this to two things:

1. My aquaponics system has not fully cycled yet (not enough nitrate production)
2. The potting soil mix comes from a friend of mine that has a master's in biology and agriculture (or something along those lines); who knows what illicit super-charged grow juice he put in that stuff

Cucumbers are jumping!

Strawberries are looking great; yes, that is another bell pepper in the middle.

Death in the Family

Unfortunately, right in the middle of feeding on Sunday, one of our goldfish gave up the ghost.  It was like nothing that I have ever seen before; swimming happily, he came up for a bit of dinner, he went stiff and then floated.  It was like he had a heart attack or something.  In any case, I was glad I was there to pull him from the water so as to avoid any other problems with the other fish.  They seemed a little disoriented at first, which is understandable.  But, they soon moved past mourning and went right on eating.  Happy fish!

Happy Fish!