Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Bump for last post.

Well a quick update,

lost 2 silver perch and 1 yabbie (unsure if yabbie was sick or just beaten up over territory). The fish and yabbies are in seperate tanks so there is no chance if stress induced by that.

Water parameters are PH 8.2 (seemed to spike after water change), Nitrite 0, nitrate 0, ammonia 0. Water temp was 17*C at 10am on a 19*C morning

Unfortunately finances are very minimal for a few more days so i will just have to wait and see how the remaining fish go.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions

One more update,

5 more dead Silver perch, only 2 left alive. its like a series of "Survivor IBC", Still have all but 1 of the yabbies.

So now im thinking i will lose the last 2 fish in the next few days.

Im going to have to start from scratch again, so any ideas on the best way to clean/disinfect the whole system and growbeds?

Will a dose of bleach pumped through the system for a few days sort everything out? The plants never took off too well so i figure they can die off too and i will start again from square one. Then how long will it take for the bleach to be washed out etc

Any tips on cleanup would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Hiya James. Sorry to here about your fish, not a great introduction to ap that's for sure... Before you get carried away... Where did you get yr fish from? What did your I can previously contain? Do you have a system thread started yet?
Things like how your system operates will be helpful also.

Sorry i should have put up some more details.

IBC's used to contain a water based concrete curing compound, all were high pressure cleaned, wire brushed and left in th sun for a few weeks as the product breaks down rather quick from UV rays.

System was running for a few months just to cycle, i chucked some seasol in to get it all going.

Goldfish were taken from my father in laws pond, they were fine for a month or so, all water parameters were fine.
Silver perch were picked up from woodvale fish and lily farm. Under their instructions i chucked a kg of lime into the water to harden the water.

System is a full IBC as a fish tank, water is taken from bottom of tank and travels to the growbeds, then bell siphons drain into the sump. Sump has a pump moving the water back to the fish tank. Sump pump has a T piece that redirects water to maintain movement in the sump. The inlet to the fishtank now has a spraybar for aeration and an electric airpump with 2x airstones.

Both growbeds are filled with peagravel that was washed to remove dust, then any residual settlement was vacuumed off the sump floor.

Fish in the fish tank (duh), and yabbies in the sump, both have flymesh covers to stop nasties falling in

Next time i get a chance i will take a few photos

Ok cool, did you finish up adding pool salt to your sys? If not do so, follow gunas advice on the previous page. Not sure why they told you to add a kg of lime, what was your pH prior to adding lime? Did you add the lime after you added the sps?
Sorry for all the questions but it's the best way to get answers....
I've always only purchased fish from Fergusson valley at the cheidy carpark sale, which is coming up again in October, and have never had a fish issue (bar human error) but have always salted prior to adding new fish as I've read much about people having fish issues with our local suppliers. I think they are eastern states fish too.