Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

+1 to what Skeggley said

You can also cover the tank to limit light (but not air) so the algae won't grow as much or will slowly die. Probably a lot of your nitrates are being taken up by the algae. If you don't have plants already in your system add them since they compete with the algae for nutrients.

FYI - Occasionally algae can cause fish kills either by using too much oxygen, producing toxins or by dying off so it's better not to have too much. What's typical is having a coating of bio-slime on the sides of the tank (which includes some algae) but not a whole lot of free floating algae (during the pea soup stage having lots of free floating algae is normal). When you have a lot of algae try to eliminate it slowly over a period of time because the bio-filter has to remove dead algae as waste and sometimes this can deplete the oxygen in the tank or there can be a spike in ammonia.

Yea tnx my AP was green for a few days before my vacation and then turned clear all of a sudden!



Right now i have a problem with my Pumpkins the leaves are all dried up and shriveld. Also are showing wite spots without any green.
the strange thing is its only my punkens that are affected and my punkins outside my AP system are fine (just 1-5 m away)

1 thing i can think of is i added some iron suppliments (Iron chelate) to the water before my vacation maby it was to much?
I added it because my leaves on my pumkins where very yellowish before so i was thinking iron defishintsy (sorry no idea how to spell that)

Here i have a link with the fotos:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... GE4aXVDZ0U

I couldn't tell from the photos whether this was yellowing (Interveinal Chlorosis is the technical description) on the new or the old leaves. It's probably a nutrient deficiency or deficiencies in spite of your adding iron earlier. Try to figure out which parts look the worst and let us know. What kind of iron chelate did you use and how much, how big is the system and what's the pH running now?

Magnesium sulfate

What looks like a Iron or Nitrogen deficiency, but most times it is a Mg deficiency.

Right now my PH has droped to about 6.6
I aded one or two drops when i started my system but seeing my punkin leaves where yellowish i added a few extra drops. My system is a ABC system so its about 700L. Tonight ill see exactly which iron supplement im using and how strong it is.

My first AP harvest!

Hey guys got my first harvest this weekend, My potatos where ailing so i had to havest them, unfortunatly they where attacked by fly lave? (see fotos below)
But i got at least a few nice potatos so im happy.


Update AP system

Unfortently i have to wait another month for my Forrel fish acording to my suplier it has to be below 18 C to transport them,
Right now im feeding my AP system with urine and thats proberbly the reson my PH is dropping...

I have fixed my magnesium shortage by adding Magnesium phosphoricum to my system so hoopfully my punkins wil get beter now.

System update:

All my plants look healthy exept my pumpkins:S

Iv added magnisium and iron but havent seen big changes.
It only seems to be affecting my pumpkins my beetroot and tomatos are growing perfectly!

(will post my values tomorrow)

My current water measurements:
ph kh gh N02 n03

22-9-16 6.5 6d 8d 0 200

Iv added some Pokon kalk to fix my PH see if i can get it back to 7 again;) (and this poken stuf also has much needed magnesium.

Probably magnesium deficiency but I'm not absolutely certain. If the Pokon ( - haven't heard of this) doesn't do the trick, you could spray apply epsom salts and avoid any issues with competition for other ions that you might have in the root zone. Do this later in the day so there is less chance of leaf burn (1 tablespoon Epsom salts per gallon - I'll let you convert to metric).

Poken is the brand that sells that stuff here in NL.

Guys an update on my system:

Friday i finery got the fish my supplier promist!
80 forel i brought 40 to my moms IBC and 40 for me (her system is the same as mine and has been running on 3 goldfish for a while).

Had one death on transport the rest went fine, iv removed 2 goldfish from my system so iv only got 4 left with my forel (im wondering if this is ok seeing the goldfish are nearly 3 larger than my forel?)


Yesterday there was no amonic or nitrite to be seen only this morning i had two dead fish:(
any ideas are for the cause of death? there is a dent in the fist ones side and the other has a red abdomen... (see foto)

PS my mother hasent had any dead fish yet.

My values from the last few months till now:
Metric units;)
Date-------------ph---kh---gh---N02---N03----NK2/3
9-9-16------------6-----------------0-----250
22-9-16----------6.5---6d---8d---0------200
2-10-16----------6.5---3d---8d---0------200
10-10-16---------6.8---6d---8d---0------150
15-10-16 --------------------------0---80----0 messured with kit instead of strips


N02 = nitrite
N03 = nitraat
NK2/3 = amonia

Fish deaths are not uncommon when you first introduce them in your tank... If you tested and didn't see ammonia or nitrites then I wouldn't worry too much, the fish get pretty stressed out being chased with a net, then however long they were in transport and however they were packaged could have induced more stress, then you can create more stress introducing them to their new home depending on how you acclimate them, and then the stress of being in a new home... Think of it as if you got an eviction notice and had to move out immediately and find a new place to live and get moved in to it immediately.. that would stress you out a lot too, but with fish stress can often kill them.

Update, Yesterday i had another forel death and my mother system has also had 3 fish deaths.
The Amonia and nitrite levels are still 0.
Is this still stress or could it be other factors? (my goldfish?)

are the goldfish much bigger than the other fish? does your mother also have other fish in with them in her system?

update: Yesterday my system had 4 deaths, all the fish having red markings or littel bites out the side like on the foto.?

No amonica or nitrite messured yesterday.

This morning no deaths.

That doesn't look like a bite to me, it looks like a sore - you might have a bacterial or fungal infection affecting your fish. Have you got salt in your system water?