Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah, I've been Chift Pist from day one.

I have a quick question,

With the set up I've just put together the water is a little murky from me being lazy and not washing the gravel.
My question is this; Can I put silvers into this water? Given the state of the Murray I figure they are used to silt in the water.

I would like to get the system cycling, so can I put the silvers in without harming them?

H.

I would say yes so long as all other water parameters are similar to their existing living conditions and you watch for ammonia spikes if the system is uncycled.

Thanks,

I might wait until the weekend anyway, seeing as we are having a bit of a cool period, they will get stressed enough without having to put up with the cold. Warmest it got was about 12º C yesterday.

H.

OK I thought it was time for a bit of an update of my system,

On the weekend, the last of the silvers that were still in the aquarium system were evicted to the system outside. roughly 30 or so ranging from 40mm to 70mm.

Had a bit of a HSM this afternoon when I returned from work, 4 of the smaller ones were dead with a 5th swimming rather strangely. didn't bother with checking the water paramatters, just went into panic mode and changed about 40% of the water.

Checked the ones that were dead, gills were a healthy pink not red. mouths were shut, didn't look like they were gasping. hadn't gone into rigger, so weren't dead for long.

I did find a snail floating around the top, ordinary garden snail, are these toxic to fish? not sure. Weather has been a bit cool here so that is another factor to take into account.

Otherwise I'm getting good growth from most the plants, though I'm having some slug and snail issues on things like silver beat and chard. I did have a batch of beer that didn't work out so well and this is keeping the "beer traps" topped up, so I hope to beat the little buggers yet.
I'm also having another go at growing some pumpkins in the newer system, and the one I put in, seems to be growing as well as the ones in the dirt garden (same batch of seedlings). The cucumbers don't seem to be doing so well, not sure why at this stage, plants looks healthy enough, just not progressing..

I'm hopeing that the increase in fish numbers in this new system will boost the nutes enough so that things like the cucumbers and cherry toms progress rather than just sitting there.

H.

How are the rest of the fish Himzol.... whack plenty of air in the tank and salt to 1ppt as a precaution....

Gills should be bright red, not pink.... might be on the way to brown blood disease... check your nitrite levels, even though you've done a 40% change....

Rest of the fish look good and healthy, I've got air going in at the moment and will do a water chemistry check first light.
Having thought about it over a glass or three of red wine I'm inclined to believe that it's toxic as you suggest, either Amonia or Nitrites. The water chanage should have taken care of the Amonia but will still need to keep an eye on the Nitrites.
BTW, they haven't been fed from Saturday, except the insects etc. that fall into the tank. I have solar lights arranged around the system to atract bugs after dark.

eight more dead yesterday, 3 more looking very ordinary this morning.

Ammo.. 0
NO2... 0
NO3... 10 - 20
PH.. 7.6

The above were the result from this morning.

I haven't salted as yet, didn't have any suitable salt..will chuck some in tonight.

I am now suspecting an Ammo spike prior to the water change, coupled with the stress of moving from the aquarium to the outside system + some cooler than wanted overnight temps.

Hopefully the carnage will end soon..

Posted it elsewhere....

Bunnings is running a special on "Sunray" pool (sea) salt at the moment.... 25kg bag for $5.92 ...

Well here in NSW anyway... Page 6 of their catalogue...

No excuses.... ..... salt them ....

Done, if nothing else the chooks will have seasoned fish to eat.

and the results are?

The three that were ordinary, passed on. No more deaths since then...

I wish I'd checked the water parameters before doing the water change, I think I'd have a better idea of what happened.

Had issues with the syphons today, took them apart and cleaned them.. working good now.

I'm having some issues with slugs at the moment, trying beer traps to see if it helps. A batch I brewed got infected so I thought i'd put it to good use.

H.

+1

3 hours late jen

bleh... sometimes I leave my computer on while I go off to do things... I forget to refresh before I reply.....