Fishless Cycling is the INCORRECT approach and one misses the point.
Good work on the graphs etc
Fishless Cycling takes the same time regardless of fishless or adding fish to cycle up your system. It gives the Human control freaks that have no understanding of how Cycling up works or the rest of the processes in an aquaponic system, the false peace of mind that they are in control.
There is the negative Domino effect once the artificial ammonia application stops that is not considered.
Another point to consider is how the artificial ammonia is applied once a day or a few intervals in a day or dripped in over a certain time interval to what we as humans deem correct and not at all proportional to the actual sizes and amount of fish that will be added at some later date to into the system.
The initial (Biomass) of the fish will supply the correct amount of Ammonia for the system and the nitrification bacteria colonies will start and grow at the correct rate to the supply of that Ammonia from the fish (Biomass) as they grow and breath out Ammonia into the water applying a constant and uniform supply of Ammonia for the Bacterial colonies.
So whoopee you get the 2 bacterial colonies growing in your system out of proportion to the amount of fish you will be adding so that you after 40 days are off to a supposed good start or are you?
So now you add the fish when you have tested your Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels after buying all the test equipment known to man using the best charts or simulations and stop adding artificial ammonia!
So control freaks, what happens next in your Fishless Cycling system?
Do you really have the correct amount of nitrification bacteria for the amount of fish biomass. If you are lucky there are too many of the 2 bacterial colonies and then you get bacteria die off.
Also consider the plants in your system that are supposed to be in proportion to the amount of Nitrates produced from your Fishless cycling you will get a sudden loss of Nitrite availability that was also nit in proportion and thus there would have been over supply and under supply of Nitrates as in a decoupled aquaponic system as well as the rest of all the nutrients and minerals that the plants would need.
The correct cycling method,
Let nature do the magic from day one by adding fingerlings into your system, later adding more fish and you will have a truly balanced system after the cycling up that takes around 40 days is complete. Your system will be in ballance and you can add seedling plants in around week 2 after adding fish. The amount of water in your system will allow the fish to grow normally without becoming toxic for the fish with this method.
Don’t add all the fish at once as that would be ridiculous.
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