Aquaponics AI just rolled out some fresh new features for your aquaponic cloud dashboard! You can now view Ammonia Toxicity, Nutrient Availability, and a special fishless cycling widget for your project.
Tracking your data is awesome and rewarding. Not only that but it saves you TONS of research (still fun to read though), sifting through thousands of papers, and gets you up and running quickly. You can start simply with an API test kit and go from there.
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.
Haha, I tried that logic with my 4 year old… She kindly corrected me, “it’s not wrong baba, its different.” She also wants to sell pink aquaponic systems when she grows up. I don’t mind which way she cycles her system
Fishless cycling does not take the same as adding fish if done properly its much faster as you can push the numbers harder and not worry about fish disease. You can also use higher doses of ammonia and microbial inoculants to speed it up. We are fully cycled in under 25-30 days including non nitrogen microbes via AIMO and IMO inoculations as well as starting bacteria. If you dose your humic, fulvic acids and a good carbon source like sugar or other fast disolving input you don’t need to wait at all and you don’t need to hope that you get the right microbes. Aquaponics is being held back by these crazy notions of never adding anything but expecting everything to just show up magically like nutrients or microbes that DO HAVE TO BE ADDED no matter your methods. We have to stop with those myths they are killing aquaponics as a whole because people try it and fail with out them then blame aquaponics. I don’t care where people get there supplies but we have to move past the notion that inputs aren’t needed beyond fish food its false.
Use ammonia sulfate as it has the lowest impact on nutrients and is easily dosed with out the possible introduction and spread of fish pathogens. When fish are stressed they are much more likely so get sick or propgate pathogens and thats basically all your doing by adding fish too early is propagating ich in most cases.
Also with fish cycling you cant add the final fish load in the first go you will overwhelm the microbes and they will die you have to add them incrementally to properly cycle the system. By simply adding ammonia you can add your full fish load day one post cycle.
Why do you think that people who look at nutrient ppms are control freaks? Its the opposite far to few people look at numbers but make claims that there systems work fine but no nutrient data to back it up especially those who claim not to supplement not one has posted actual ppms of there water to actually prove there claims only pics of plants which don’t tell us anything. Great example I have yet to test a single commercial setup that had its micronutrients right unless they have maintained them. You would be wise to learn from those who are big on numbers.
Most of your nitrifying bacteria isn’t from your fish its from the air. Thats why fishless cycling works lol.
There is no sudden loss of nitrogen in fishless cycling if you do it properly. Also unless your doing cold water fish or some fish way outside of pH or temp range theres no reason to increase costs with decoupled systems either. It only adds costs and increases failure points for no gains.
There is no correct cycling method but none of what you said is actually true.
I once had a renowned art instructor who implored us, his students, to create art evoked emotions in differing thought groups. I’ve since moved on to the ag-tech world but I would assume he’d be proud of this little chart haha.
After all I live in deep dark Africa so i don’t get to know the latest unless I am helped with new information.
I am interested in learning and bettering my understanding of all aspects of Aquaponics
