Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

Just joined although have been watching from afar for a while.

Built a system middle of April and having some water chem issues. The Nitrite and Nitrates have spiked, hugely over the past week, some of the fish (goldfish) are starting to show black spots and one has even turned completely black.

Here is the results:

Date Time Temp ℃ P/H NO² NO³ K/H G/H NH₃

14 May 2013 20:27 18 7.4 0 0 53.7 89.5 0.25
15 May 2013 23:07 18 7.4 0 0 53.7 143.2 0.25
16 May 2013 19:53 20 7.4 0 0 71.6 125.3 0.25
18 May 2013 00:58 20 7.4 0 0 \ \ 0.25
19 May 2013 19:58 20 7.4 0 0 71.6 125.3 0.25
20 May 2013 18:42 20 7.4 0 0 89.5 161.1 0.25
21 May 2013 21:12 18 8 0 0 89.5 143.2 0.25
22 May 2013 18:50 19.4 8 0 0 89.5 161.1 0.25
23 May 2013 22:10 19 8 0 0 89.5 179 0.25
24 May 2013 23:24 19.7 8.2 0 0 107.4 179 0.25
27 May 2013 13:50 17.3 8 0 0 89.5 179 0.25
27 May 2013 21:25 18.4 8.2 0 0 89.5 179 0.25
5 May 2013 20:07 18 7.4 0.25 0 53.7 161.1 0.25
7 May 2013 19:55 18.1 7.2 5 80 35.8 214.8 0.25

I dont know if anyone can make the results out, I cannot add a PDf or XLS so had to type out manually. As I am new to this, I could really do with some help before any of the fish start keeling over, worse case I can change the water if tomorrows tests have normalised in some way. But what I want to get is an understanding as to why this has happened and also what I can do to rectify now and in the future.

Any ideas?

I have also attached some photos

From what I can make out.. your nitrites are currently 5... and your nitrates 80....

Salt your tank to 1ppt... to mitigate against the nitrites....

P.S.... yes, you can't attach a PDF or XLS file to a post... but you can "zip" the file... and attach a zipped file...

I edited the table for clarity. Nitrobacter (NO2->NO3) are present but haven't fully colonized yet. Salt like Rupe stated. What do K/H and G/H stand for?

Carbonate Hardness and General Hardness...