Bacteria are the magic that takes the otherwise unusable fish waste and creates a near perfect plant fertilizer. In last month’s aquaponics Buy prevacid without prescription, article, I talked about how to attract the bacteria needed in your aquaponics system to create the bio-filter that converts the fish waste into plant food. This process is often called system “cycling”. The cycling method I explained in last month’s article uses live fish. In this month’s article, I’ll focus on how to cycle without fish. By the end of these two articles, you will fully understand what you MUST do to initiate cycling and to ensure its success. You will also understand what you CAN do to both make the process less stressful for your fish and your plants, and to speed up the process. Best price for prevacid, I’m going to assume that you have read last month’s article “Aquaponics Part 5a – Starting Up Your Aquaponics System Using Fish” and not go back over the definition of cycling, the importance of testing tools, cheap prevacid in canada, Lowest price prevacid, when to add plants, and how to speed up cycling. These points are all exactly the same for cycling without fish as they are when fish are used, prevacid canada. Find discount prevacid,
Why Cycle Without Fish?
There are a few important reasons why you might want to cycle your
aquaponics system without using fish. First, both you and your fish will likely experience much less stress because you will not be trying to keep anybody alive during the process. Because of this,
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Prevacid sale, your concern about pH will be justifiably less since the pH of the system water will only have to be kept in a range that facilitates cycling and not in the tighter range that would be required to keep your fish safe.
Second, compare prevacid prices online, Prevacid internet, because you can elevate the ammonia concentration to a much higher level than would be safe for fish, you can cycle your system in less time (generally 10 days to 3 weeks versus 4 to 6 weeks when you cycle with fish) and end up with a more robust bacteria base once you are cycled. The practical result of this is that you can fully stock your tank once cycling is complete, prevacid bangkok, Buy cheapest prevacid, versus gradually increasing your stocking levels as is recommended when cycling with fish. This is especially beneficial to those who are growing aggressive or carnivorous fish because they are less likely to attack each other if they are all introduced to the tank at the same time.
Finally, prevacid buy, Low cost prevacid, you can more precisely control how much ammonia is added to your system during the process. For example, if you see that your ammonia level is creeping up to 10 ppm, buy discount prevacid online, Find prevacid online, but no nitrites have shown up yet, just stop adding ammonia for a few days and let the bacteria catch up. You can’t do this with fish, find discount prevacid online.
Cycling Without Fish
There are several ways to cycle by adding ammonia to your system. These range from the obvious to the slightly bizarre,
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Liquid Ammonia
(AKA Clear Ammonia, Pure Ammonia,
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Cheapest generic prevacid, 100% Ammonia, or Pure Ammonium Hydroxide)
[caption id="attachment_22359" align="alignright" width="220" caption="Clear Ammonia"]
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This is the old fashioned cleaning product your grandmother used to use that filled the room with the smell of ammonia. Only use it if you can find the pure form that is made strictly out of ammonia (usually 5 – 10% by weight) and water. Avoid anything with perfumes, buy prevacid cheap, Price of prevacid, colorants, soaps, find prevacid, Prevacid in us, surfactants or any other additives. Shake the bottle. If it foams or if it doesn’t list the ingredients or say “Clear Ammonia”, “Pure Ammonia”, prevacid online stores, Buy prevacid low price, “100% Ammonia”, or “Pure Ammonium Hydroxide”, buy prevacid without prescription, Cheap prevacid in usa, leave it on the shelf.
The hardest part of cycling with pure ammonia can sometimes be finding the ammonia. Where I live, prevacid tablet, Purchase prevacid online, I can buy it at our locally owned McGuckins Hardware. Try your local hardware store, cleaning supply store or even well stocked super stores. If all else fails, prevacid for order, Buy prevacid canada, you can order it online.
Pros – It is relatively inexpensive (approximately $20 for a gallon) and what you don’t use to cycle your aquaponics system can be used to clean your windows! Plus, cheap prevacid pill, Buy prevacid lowest price, you know exactly what you are adding to your system with this product – ammonia and water, nothing more, prevacid online cheap, Order cheap prevacid, nothing less.
Cons – It can be hard to find if you don’t have a cleaning supply or a good hardware store nearby. I’m told that it is entirely unavailable in Australia since September 11th Buy prevacid without prescription, because of the remote association as a possible ingredient in bomb making.
Ammonium Chloride
(crystallized ammonia)
This is the same concept as the Liquid Ammonia above,
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Pros – Because it is very concentrated and in dry form, it is inexpensive to ship. If you get the kind intended for aquariums, there will be little doubt that it is pure and will work in cycling.
Cons – There will be cost involved. Small amounts are often sold at high mark ups and large quantities are inexpensive for what you get but probably way more than you will ever use. Still, this may be a good choice so just check prices.
Human Urine
(AKA “Humonia” or “PeePonics”)
Sound gross? Well, when you think about it, human urine is actually an excellent source of ammonia just as the waste product from any animal would be. Human urine is just easier to capture. Here is the catch. In order to go from urea to ammonia, you should put it into a sealed bottle for a few weeks to “percolate”. Can you just urinate straight into the fish tank? Sure, but the problem is that since that urine will take a while to convert into ammonia you will have no way of telling just how much potential ammonia you have in there. The levels will read very low, and then all of a sudden one day they will explode. A final concern around “humonia” is that there may be bacteria or germs in your digestive system that could be harmful to the fish and / or the nitrifying bacteria. In general, the conversion to ammonia in that sealed container will destroy most of this. However, the “humonia” approach creates a more complex biological environment than pure, synthetic forms of ammonia and thus introduces some risk to the cycling process and the health of your system.
Pros – This is a free and readily available source of ammonia, buy prevacid without prescription.
Cons –There is the “yuck” factor, the fact that you have to store the urine until it converts to ammonia, and the possibility that harmful bacteria or germs from your digestive system are transmitted to your aquaponics system.
Other sources of ammonia
As animal flesh decays it lets off ammonia. I saw a suggestion on a forum once for cycling your system using a bit of dead fish, but dismissed this concept as too bizarre. Then I was testing one of my fully established, rock solid tilapia systems with a group of people who had just taken a class from me and were learning about maintaining their system. Imagine my embarrassment when the ammonia reading was off the chart! Ends up a fish had died in the back corner of the tank and hadn’t floated to the surface.
Pros – This is another free and readily available source of ammonia.
Cons – Again, because other bacteria and chemical compounds are given off during the decay process, there is a chance that you will introduce something undesirable to your aquaponics system, not to mention the chance of attracting flies or other insects that want to assist in the decomposition. The other con is that you will have difficulty controlling how much ammonia gets into your system with this method.
Instructions for Fishless Cycling
Once you have identified your source of ammonia, you will be ready to start the cycling process. Just follow these simple instructions.
- Add the ammonia to the tank a little at a time until you obtain a reading from your ammonia kit of ~5 ppm.
- Record the amount of ammonia that this took, and then add that amount daily until nitrites appear. By appear, I mean a reading of ~ 0.5 ppm.
- Once nitrites appear, cut back the daily dose of ammonia to half the original volume.
- Once nitrates appear (5 – 10 ppm), and the nitrites have dropped to zero, you can add your fish.
Cycling with Fish - Conclusion
The hardest part of cycling without fish is acquiring a good, pure source of ammonia. After that, this is a relatively easy way to get your aquaponics system up and running. It will give you much more control over the process, it will avoid endangering your fish by exposing them to too much ammonia and nitrites, and you will likely find the entire process much less traumatic. I recommend you give it a try.
For more information on Aquaponics visit:
The Aquaponic Source
Aquaponics Gardening Community
The Aquaponic Gardening Blog.
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Hydroponics Dictionary
