Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

VB, this may sound a bit wrong, don't take it the wrong way, but I am kinda reassured that you are registering nasties, it helps me out with my diagnosis. I am a bit surprised it happened that quick though. However, I also feel confident you will be back to zero within 24 hours. It also confirms by thinking that rather than drastically upping feed to pump it into them when say, they are really hungry or the weather warms up in the case of the barra, that a more uniform and gradual increase is better off long term, esp if you factor in the 12 or 24 hours they can't be fed to bring the system back in balance.

System was pretty much the same this morning - ammonia probably a bit lower. Will check again tonight. Stu - I too am hoping that will be okay within 24 hours without need to do anything drastic like major water change. Once it is okay - I will have to maintain a reasonable feeding rate and try and keep my bacteria levels up.

Yeah, I think it is important that once rebalanced, the feed is kept up, so that the bacteria levels stay up. Obviously, as the fish get bigger and eat more, we need to feed more every day.

An update: I did not do a water change or anything, but the ammonia has reduced to between 0 and .25 and the nitrite to .25 or less. PH is still a bit of a concern at about 6. I will probably go and add some PH up tonight - not too much cause I only want to increase the PH gradually.

This proves that I am housing a pretty good bacteria population that can increase in numbers pretty quickly. I fed a ridiculous amount yesterday, but luckily there are unlikely to be an repurcussions. I don need to get the ph under control though. PH must have crept down over time, and the recent rainfall would not have helped.

Oh yeh - nitrate is very high as would be expected. I have never seen it as dark as 160, but it is pretty damn close.

At least you have had no losses and have learned from the experience.
This will allow you to go on to bigger and better things

No losses - correct. Learned from experience - probably not, need to go into HSM for that to happen .

Call me mad - but gave the fish a handful of food tonight. Wasn't much in the scheme of things and will keep the bacteria chugging along towards where I need it to be to feed my fish a proper ration each day.

VB, is it a possibility that the pH was already sitting low BEFORE you went on the binge feeding? You may have answered this, i'm sorta behind on the posts.


Just looking at the casue-effect thing...............

Fed too much , PH went down, ammo went up

OR

PH dangerously low already but bacs copeing, big feed, bac can't cope at that PH, ammo up.

I figure it is more like this Steve:

PH low already
Fed more than current bacteria levels could cope with immediately
Within 24 hours ammonia nearly under full control
Decides to feed more to keep up the excitement levels

Despite the low PH, the bacteria are clearly doing their job. Will try and raise PH gradually. Have put a small amount of PH up in and will do a partial water change in a couple of days time as the nitrate levels are getting pretty high and my plants are just not taking enough nutes to cope. Dirt gardens will get a treat :-).

Thats what i was thinking too.

I think, and it is only a thought, that upping the feed by 2x or 3x is like adding 2x or 3x the fish.

You'll get an ammo spike. may be VERY short lived with good PH and bacs, but logic seems to point to it having to happen. ??

I agree, If my PH wasn't so low I don't think I would have even noticed the spike. I gotta get more grit into my system. It started at 7.6 months ago and has gradually worked its way down. The big addition of water when I changed my setup and the recent rain probably tipped me over the edge.

As any system ages (aquariums, too), the pH will drop because of the overal build-up of organic stuff. pH-Up will bring the pH of your water up, but will not counteract the organics. I would expect it to drift back down. I'd definitely go with more shell grit to get a lasting effect.

Janet - you are correct that the vast qunatity of rotting stuff within the grow-beds will be pushing ph down. A bit before you joined, Steve, mystelf and AA all went into HSM at about the same time with out aquarium systems all because the biofilters were choca block full of solids. Dirty filter means clean tank - to an extent only.

Time will tell as to the ongoing effect and to whether the shell will be sufficient to buffer it. I hope the worms in the grow-bed will help to dispose of rotting matter and decrease the ph down effect. I wonder what sort of ph worm casting are - acid I suspect - which is why lime is often an addition to worm farms.

My understanding is that the nitrification cycle of ammonia releases acids hence the continual downward shift of ph / consumption of buffers.

solids breakdown is uncharted for me

I agree with that Steve - but also believe from experience that a full filter/grow-bed could also have a quick ph dropping effect. I am hoping my beds will never get like this - due to worm activity etc.