Aquaponics - Pump-less cycling

Fish-less cycling is where you breed up a colony of nitrifying bacteria in your aquaponics grow beds by adding a source of ammonia to your water as it pumps through your system. You do this because there is some risk to the fish in an immature system. Those risks are lessoned once your system is able to turn ammonia into nitrites, and then nitrates, at a rate that will allow the system to cope with the desired level of fish stocking density.

I still don't have my fish tank and sump, so I thought I might give the nitrifying bacteria a head start by just adding hardware store bought fish emulsion by sprinkling it on with a watering can.

I still don't have a watering can so I made one from an empty soft drink bottle.

I have no idea if this will work, but once I get my fish tank and sump, I should know if it has helped speed up the process of cycling the system.

Its about to rain so I'll just sprinkle it on top and let the rain do the rest.

This is the second time I have done this, and the last time the gravel remained wet for a week, so there is a chance this might work.

I'll let you know.