Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Alright, at the risk of revealing what a rookie I am, I have a few questions.
Right now I have a month old little aquaculture system going. It's a 35 gallon pond with about 5 Shebunkins (used to be 8 shebunkins, but three died yesterday) and two koi. They are all about 3 inches long. I feed them the standard PetSmart "pond food". The pump and siphon are working very well. I am only trying to grow food, not fish for eating, hence the Koi / Shebunkins. This system is out on the back porch, and is not in a covered environment, ie: greenhouse.
At first the fish were very energetic, but now they seem to be sluggish and never EVER leave their little fake coral cover reef that I put in the pond for them to have shade. They do eat food, but not with the voracity that they used to. And, as I've said already, three of them have passed away.

1. The romaine lettuce and the collard greens that I have in the grow bed are turning light brown and dying. And the small seedlings have been in the bed for weeks and haven't grown a millimeter. Any thoughts?

2. Is it okay to treat an aquafarm pond with PH up or down? Does this solution kill or hurt the fish?

And perhaps the aspect that will piss all of you off, I have yet to check the PH, ammonia content. (This is because I am flat broke and went into this project hoping to get a PH / Ammonia meter soon. I intend on picking this equipment up today. Sooooooooo....

3. Could this be why the fish are sluggish?

I always thought Koi were pretty "social" for lack of a better word. But the two in this pond seem to be nothing but nervous and scared.

Please forgive my naivete, but I promise this is a project that I care about and want to work. In other words, despite my lack of some equipment, I really really am in to this system and hate to see the poor fish suffering, if they are.

Any thoughts?

Did you know you can take a sample of your water to petsmart and they'll test it for free? Not the best test- but much better than nothing. Those results will guide you. You probably need to
A) change some of the water (don't forget to dechlorinate the water)
B) add salt

Why wait for a meter? Just get a test kit and move on.

Could be any number of things ad until you find out what, you won't know. I can tell you that my growth went exponential. For a long time nothing, then all of a sudden it took off as things balanced out.

I would also be concerned over the food. Even though you are not eating the fish, the nutrients they put into the water is based in what they eat.

Lastly, if the fish are scared by their surroundings they may not come out. Mine hid in their tubes for a while. Now some hang out outside of the tubes as long as the wood is covering the tank.

Also, is it too got for lettuce and greens in your neck of the woods?