Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

yeah I get what you are saying janet but if you think about it we have all added NaCl to our systems and that dissociates to release Cl and Na ions and that is considered a great benefit, but any way just an idea.

i'm going with nick on the HCl, it will be fine, and will form the chloride salt of the base it is neutralising

OK, chemistry was not really my strong point in school. I will suggest diluting the HCl well in a bucket before adding it to the system.

100% (correct, not strength! LOL)

I have used teabags, peat and driftwood to get some tannic acids into the pH brawl. Bit more natural than using pool chems but not as quick and easy.
Whatever you do with pH, when it involves fish make any change slowly and in stages. Be aware once you strip the buffers from the water with acids... it can pH crash very quickly. often handy to have some calcium carbonate you can chuck in to get it up around pH7.5 again.

Ok i did a water test last night and there was no change even with once a day feeding for the last 9 days.
i'm going to add 5 more fish tomorrow

ok i added an additional 6 fish to the system 24 ours ago and just did a water check - only a small change to the readings. ammonia and nitrites are still at 0 and nitrates are up a fraction.

will it take longer to see a change or is this all the additional nutrients i can expect?

I'd give it at least another 24 hours Timmy... just in case they're constipated

ok, just had my first ever fatality so i did a retest and ammonia and nitrites almost 0 still, the ammonia is a yellow with just the faintest hint of green, so i'd say 0.1 at the most. ph is around 7.6 - 8, nirites definately 0.

funny thing is i checked on them this morning and they were all fine, but i came out this afternoon and this little guy was on his side at the bottom so i fished him out, no signs of life at all. nothing to really indicate the cause either, he looked perfectly healthy.

on thing i will say though is that he was a particularly greedy fish, i noticed he would always be the first to the food and rip it out of the other fishs mouth, is it possible the poor sod ate himself to death?

Possible maybe food is too large?
The nitrites are the one you want to keep an eye on here in my mind. I find it's the best sign of how well the systems cycled.

the food being too large could be an issue, the flakes are too big for them to eat in one go they have to pick at them.

Keep in mind flakes will 'seep' nutrient value into the water, if they are not being eaten quick smart not slow then it's no prob but if they float around and stuff ya... food disolves into water and gets into nitrate cycle before even going thru a fish.
Pellets are better but if the fish are greedy and load up on them, when they absorb water and expand they can get stuck in fishes mouth.
Is a strange one but ya I havbe lost little cichlids too it before.......