Richard bray

Fishless Cycling
This cycling process is similar to fish cycling, but it can tolerate fluctuations because there are no fish in the system. It also establishes mitrifying bacteria faster, and it is easier to amend the water to reach me right pH and ammonia levels. Fishless cycling can prepare your system for fish in 2-3 weeks.
Fishless cycling requires adding pure ammonia in low doses to encourage nitrifying bacteria. You can use either pure, 100% liquid ammonia from a hardware store, or crystalized ammonia that is formulated for aquaponic systems.
Put a few plants into the system, and start adding ammonia in very low doses. Each day, increase the amount of ammonia you add until you ■each 5ppm on your water test. Keep a log of the pH, water x~perature, and amount of ammonia you added to maintain 5ppm.
once you have consistent readings of 5ppm ammonia, begin testing for nitrites. Once nitrites climb to 0.5ppm, cut the amount of ammonia you
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are using by half. Nitrate levels should climb over 5ppm, while nitrite levels taper off. When the nitrite levels reach 0, your system has been successfully cycled. You can now add plants and fish, but continue to test the water, pH, and temperature to keep ammonia levels in check.
Once your system has been successfully cycled, you must continue to monitor the water quality to ensure the health of your plants and fish Fluctuations due to pH, temperature, and feeding ratios can throw off the balance of your entire system and cause a system crash.
Feeding requirements change throughout the life of the fish, and this will affect the amount and quality of the waste that the fish produce It’s important to keep testing ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels to make sure you are feeding the right amount each day.
We will cover testing and adjusting these nutrients more in the next chapter.
Nitrification, Mineralization, & Oxygenation
While aquaponics is generally described as using fish waste to feed plants, this isn’t technically true. Organic fertilizers, like animal waste, actually provide food for bacteria, which then provide nutrition for plants.
This is why the bacterial health of an aquaponic system is so crucial. Without a healthy population of the right bacteria, the fish waste would pass right by the plant roots and back into the fish tank, killing the fish and plants within a matter of days.
The three driving processes behind a healthy system are nitrification, mineralization, and oxygenation.