Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Good one John, just goes to show relying on spell check isn't always the best thing...

Looks to me as though you are exactly right: the system is probably cycled, but the extra load from rotting redclaws upped your nitrites. I'd bet that in 24hrs after taking the dead critters out nitrites will drop nicely and you'll be able to up your feed rates.

Finished working later than I wanted and didn't get time to do another water test. Will try and get it done tomorrow

I believe that the bubbles you are talking about are caused by excessive protein in the water, same thing happens in aquariums before they mature. It will go away as long as you keep the readings going the way they are.

Water is heaps clearer, the boss is very happy to be able to see her red claw and I can see the little silvers doing there thing cruising from one end to the other

So today's test results;



I'm thinking (although Nitrates aren't so much a problem for the fish) we don't have enough uptake of Nitrate by the plants...? We have 2 growbeds online, one is 600l and the other is 300l - the tank is 1500l so I guess we can put more growbed online for this FT, but the fish are still fingerlings and we only have 35 or so redclaw in there. We're not feeding anyone at the moment (other than 2 pinches of aquarium flakes once a day to try and get the silvers conditioned to 'dinner time') and we still have 0.5 ammonia. Is this acceptable. I read on the forum about any ammonia being bad for the fish - will I be able to get the system down to no ammonia?

On the plus side I haven't had any silver floaters and they all seem to be scooting around the tank happily enough, water was over 19 deg today when I did the water testing, so we're getting to prime growing time for the little silvers :happy dance:

Yes, you need more grow beds ..... normal is twice as much grow bed as tank. No great hurry , as you say silvers are small but sooner started sooner finished.
Ammonia will drop to zero by itself , patience. 19C temp will see everything , bacteria / fish and red-claw developing rapidly.

Been crook as a crooked thing - the house has been apparently hit with Swine Flu. I say apparently as the hospital didn't test for it, but just said yep swine flu.

Last water tests done...



The boss has had more crays die, almost 7 in total now. I'm sure it was the way they where handled and introduced in the begining, but the boss seems to think it is from something wrong with the water now. Do the test results show anything folkes think would cause deaths? I feel it's something from them being introduced as the silvers are racing around like teenage hoons on the backstreets of town???

Nothing in the test results to show any problem...

And yup, as soon as the water gets above 20 degrees... the Silvers will go yipppeee... make sure you up your feed to the Silvers...

I would agree with rupe, Sig, nothing at all wrong with test results, I would be looking elsewhere for the problem, unless you have added tap water recently

Nocky and Rupert, thanks heaps for the re-assurance. Todays test results make me feel a whole world better...



Much happier with the water results and the clarity of the water. I'm going to go to two feeds per day, it isn't much probably 5 or 10g of food at a time. The silvers have really learned well and even though they are just little tackers (mind you, must be about 5-6 bolters already double the size of everyone else! ) they put on a good feeding spectacle for being fingerlings. My favorite part of the day, chuck out some floating pellets and watch the little tackers go crazy for 5 min, it doesn't sound it, but it is SO relaxing, I can just forget about everything and watch the fish perform like my own little circus (Hey Mike, I take it all back - thanks for infecting us... I love my Lucas, but I DanG I love my Silvers!!!)

I know, I know, really surprised you missed this viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6010

Mike, house was hit with swine flu, been laid up a bit and not interested in much except checking the old eyelids for holes - sorry to dissapoint...

Yuk, I have had a shocker for two weeks now, the worst of it was last week while I was away on camp with school = no fun Don't think it was the swine variety but was certainly the worst I have had for a long time, it seems to keep reoccurring. Hope you all recover soon.

So that's the latest test results - really happy with what the results are saying. The boss is very happy with the plant growth. She popped some seeds in last Sunday and they are now massive seedlings all of 3" - I can't lie, I'm not going to ever get really excited about plant growth (the boss takes care of that side of things - lucky I married her, hey? otherwise I'd never be able to do AP) I'm just hanging out for the morning I wake up and the little silvers are bloody monsters!!!

Anyway, the water is around 20 deg most the time so I've been feeding them twice a day, it's so cool to see 'em go nuts over these little red floating balls - cool!!!

Oh man what a bummer!!! I thought I'd weigh my fish food to see how much I had fed them, then use the DPI's FCR for silver perch to work out roughly how much my brood of silvers has gained... well a poultry 48grams of food has been used which converts to around 28g increase in overall fish weight... man how depressing I'm gonna go sulk now...

An FCR of 2:1 would be pretty typical for Silver Perch... indeed most freshwater fish...

Trout, Jade Perch and Barramundi are the exceptions... all fast growing... and better FCR's... but more demanding in terms of water temps and management..