Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Dude, I had 50 koi in my first attempt. They died over a period of about 3 months. I'd have a day where something would go wrong and 10 would die (or I'd kill 10 by pumping them onto the growbeds and leaving them there or something). So I concur with the others, don't risk so much going for gold. Start with a couple to debug your system and then add more and more.


Put it this way: If you bought 400 at $0.80 each, but 50% die, you'd have been better off (emotionally ) buying 50 when they're small and having a 50% loss and then paying $1.60 (or some larger sum) for the other 175 fish at a larger size when you've got your system set up. You still end up with the same amount of fully grown fish, and you end up paying the same amount of money, but there is less risk of loosing more than 50% on your initial attempt.

400 fish @ $0.80 with 50% losses == 200 fish costing $320
50 fish @ $0.80 with 50% losses + 175 fish @ $1.60 == 200 fish costing $320

Of course these are made up numbers, but you can plug your own numbers in and see if it works out. I'm certainly glad I only had 50 koi and not more.

Yes, Dad's system lost all 100 silver perch (costing $175) within about a fortnight because the system wasn't cycled properly and/or temperature was too cold. Then it was a matter of buying a couple of SPs and catfish from pet shops (costing $4 to$8 each) at a time and trying to get them to survive. Only after keeping 3 silver perch and about 10 goldfish alive for about 2 months, did we get 100 Australian Bass. Even now we've lost a couple of the larger perch due to a pump failure in hot weather and continue to lose a bass every couple of days due to an unknown cause.

The moral is that Dad's system is still in the "ironing bugs out" phase after many innocent fish have given up their lives, and after Dad has wasted hundreds of dollars on the project. I'd be mighty nervous about starting out with as many as 400 fish. Like Gemmell said, for a similar monetary cost you could save yourself a LOT of emotional pain by starting smaller and stocking up later...

Why not add your fish gradually, as you add your growbeds?

I currently have 50 large goldfish - soon to be sent back to the lfs.
so my system is cycled :-) thanks :-)

KP,
Problem is probably water inflo is too fast. Siphon can't clear completely before more water fills the inlet.

My quick scan didn't find the details of your syphon. Do you have an air inlet to cut the syphon? They're cool

Hey KP,

If your just going to send your goldies back to the lfs, could I offer them a home please?
I'd like more for my system as I'm expanding it and need more fish.
DH says I can have more goldies 'cause he likes them and he wants to see the system producing lots of veg before I'm aloud to spend money on fingerlings.
Also, I know yours are healthy, my last lot of pet shop goldies came with white spot.

Jimmy not to be a prick, but wasn't that info obvious enough throughout the forum?

SG, you know you can cure white spot really easily. goldies will survive 32C, raise the temp to this and add salt at say 3ppt (you'd know better than me if goldies will handle the salt, but i'd think they wold.

any way, you'll be all clear in about a week.

Thanks Steve.

I did salt them (to about 5ppt) to get rid of it but I didn't realise at the time that it worked better if the water was heated. I have a spare heater too.
I was SO happy I had them in the quarantine tank!
Not sure how much salt they will tolerate but they are pretty tough little buggers.

SG, the LFS will buy them back off me, but not for much... so we may be able to come to an understanding

Come on Kuda..... show us your fish

32C should kill them on its own, but if not it will speed the life cycle up to just mroe than a day and then the 3ppt salt can take care of them. two punch combo

I will get a photo of my siphon for you guys, but I have an auto-loop siphon.
It's 1" and works a treat.
The inflow if slowed any more would not start the siphon in the beginning.
My issue I think, is that the inflow is 2m from the outflow. The siphon can't suck it fast enough. In other words, the gravel restricts the flow too much.
I think If I put a 'outer standpipe' horizontal down the bottom, it will drain better and allow the siphon to empty the last little bit faster, and therefore create an airlock

Funny I've spent ages trying to stop airlocks in my system, and when I try to make 1 I can't!

**********************************HELP, I need HELP******************************
When cleaning out my goldies from the IBCs, I did find that some of the biguns had migrated between tanks.
This is ok-ish but I'd like to stop it.
what is critical is that I stop fish migrating to the sump.

**********************************To all my IBC using Friends****************************
How do I place a screen over the outlet of the IBC. My sump pumps directly from the lower outlet, and this is also how fish migrate, as the IBC are joined by the lower outlet.

Any IDEAS anybody?? I REALLY don't want 'Fish Scale Confetti' from my new SPs, well they'll get trapped in the basket filter, but I'm sure that's as bad.

No goldfish ever made it to the sump, but...

Sounds good to me.



Could this have something to do with your 'virgin births'?



Cool! (or warm from the goldies perspective ) I'll have to remember that, though I hope I don't have to put it in to practice.

When I get my ibc's I was going to make a plastic disc with holes in it to go in between them. Planning to put it in between fittings.

I was going to use flyscreen, but thought that it may block up.

Close the tap, fit plastic screen - done