Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Like Zubin said, I have a compressor running 24/7 that is for a 10k gallon pond. And a 2k gallon per hour pump running 24/7. Plus a 300 gallon per hour pump running 24/7. With only 16 fish in 1550 gallons of water I could probably get away with no air and be fine.

you might be able to bring a fish to the DNR for some assistance identifying? or maybe an ag lab?

Might have to do that Keith. Only got 16 fish left in this tank, might just kill all of them and start over with that tank. I could throw them in my pond and see if they make it.

but then you take the chance of infecting your pond with whatever these have..

Yeah, that is true.

Was there anything in your tank or ibc's that might have leached into your system or something external that may have entered the system. It's strange the way they are slowly dropping off one by one. I would consider getting some tests done in a lab to see if that uncovers anything that might be killing your fish.

Nothing has changed in the system in about 4-5 months. I need to find someone that can do the tests on the water. I doubt it is my source water, because all of my fish tanks have the same water from my well. I had 2 of my IBC's that has some slag rock in them. I took them out of the system and replaced them with new ibc's with just river rocks. Maybe the slag rock is causing some my issues, if not I wasted an entire day today changing those grow beds out.

Lost 6 fish today, all had white gills, and none had any fin issues.

Slag rock... as in slag from smelting processes Helomech? Or is that something different in the US?

If its smelting slag it could contain all kinds of heavy metals like lead, copper or nickel, depending on what ore it contained. Is this a possible explanation? Heavy metal poisoning?

Slag rock might just be your problem

If this is the case, then I would not be eating anything coming from that AP system, fish or plants !

Not sure what it is, it is a rock. It is black, and has lots of surface area. Going to take a pic of some of it later.

Do you have any metal fittings on pumps, connectors, air lines, anything at all? There are threads around on this forum somewhere that mention the AP water, being naturally acidic, reacting with metal parts. It takes a while for the reactions to show up however.
My thoughts on the matter at hand. No training or background in chemistry/physics or whatever, I just read alot.
Hope you find the source easily and don't jump to conclusions. There is probably a simple solution to this issue. I need to take the time to read and look at the pics closely from the beginning all the way through of this thread to see if anything stands out.

Oh. Oops. Page 7. That was you, so I guess you already know about the metal contacting the water.

Thanks Mr.Bill, yes there is no metal below water except what is inside of the pumps. I appreciate any help.

Well my wife just called the place we got the rocks from and they said it was slag. All of it has been removed from my system, going to do a lot of water changes. The good thing is all of my plants are temporary, once the green house is done I will be starting the plants over. Here are some pics of the rocks.