Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We got our first fish yesterday. We put the horse before the cart because we haven't installed our tanks yet. We had one casuality but the rest of the 100 silver perch fingerlings look fine and are eating well.

I just have a few questions.

1. I've tested the water for pH and nitrates. pH was 7, nitrates are clear. I'm guessing that the nitrate level won't go up for a while. We have the fish in a 160 litre holding tank that isn't filtered but is aerated. Hopefully our tank will be here next week. How often should I test the water?

2. How often should I feed the fish. I'm doing it three times a day at the moment. We have sinkable fish food pellets and I've also added some lettuce bits. They loved the pellets, haven't touched the lettuce.

3. As my husband is building the tank stands right next to the fish, and he was walking around the fish tank a lot, I thought that might be stressing them. I put a cover over the tank so now it's half covered and half open. It it ok to do that or do they need the light?

4. When we have the fish in the big tank, I will be feeding them sprouted organic grain and organic fish food. Does anyone have a recipe for a homemade organic food that I could make and keep in the freezer or fridge?

Please add any other wisdom you think I might need at this point. Thank you.

maybe ease off on the feeding just yet Rhonda. 100 fish in a small tank will cause the nitrates to rise pretty quickly.

Have fun with them but you don't want to have HSM

99 silver perch in 160 litres feeding three times a day.
Test water every day and be ready to change your water out ie have lots of declorinated water on standby. Under those conditions I would emagine ammonia to go high every day untill your cycled. Good luck, I think you will be busy.

Uncycled, no biofilter and 100 fish in 160 ltrs. To avoid HSM in this situation, I would say very regular large water changes are goiong to have to happen. Stop feeding them. Those little perch will send your ammonia thru the roof. If you notice the fish turning over onto their sides a lot, change out water straight away. Get the fish tanks happening ASAP, and get some sludge from a friend's healthy aquarium to kick start your bacteria in the growbeds. It won't be high nitrates that cause the problems, it will be the ammonia and nitrites that precede the nitrates which the plants extract.

I had 200 silvers in 1000 litres with minimal feeding (once a day small pinch) and still the ammonia got to 4 and nitrites to nearly 10. Plus I had 400 litres of gravel grow bed and aged water and gravel. Sorry to put a dampener on your day Forest, but those fish are possibly going to be screaming in a few days

Please keep us posted, as we can hopefully guide you thru if things start going ugly.

The fish like a variation in light over a 24 hour period. Low light does help alleviate stress.

i would feed every other day if you have that number in that size tank. I assume they are only small but without a filter the ammonia and nitrite levels could still rise relatively quickly. you won;t have a lot of surface area to house the bacteria and thus transform your ammonia to nitrite and then into nitrate. So I doubt you would get any nitrate.

jaymie, what is HSM? Is it enough to test for nitrates once a day?

We have 10,000 litres of rain water on stand by, john. The water isn't filling the tank. There's probably 100 litres in it. Should I add more water?

HSM is holy shit mode.

Don't worry about testing for nitrates, test for ammonia, when it goes up, change your water. eep doing this until you get your growbeds online and bacteria established.

Monyas pretty much summed up my response.

If your tanks are going to be up in a week then simply DO NOT FEED your fish for a week.

You'll be doing daily 100% water changes if you do, and that alone (temp and ph shock) is gonna give you huge problmes with the fishies.

Forget about the nitrate and check every day for ammonia and nitrite.

Its sort of pointless at this stage getting an aquarium filter setup, as it will take 4 weeks to kick in and your tanks will be done in 1 week.

Once they're in the larger tank (how many litres was it again?) you can start feeding again.

If you can keep the water temp (naturally) around 15C then the fish won't feel like eating nearly as much anyway, and thier metablic rate will drop, also the water will hold more dissolved oxygen and the ammonia will be less toxic.

STeve

just read the extra posts, yes, put as much water as will fit in the temporary tank.

This gets better? 99 perch in 100 liters of water feeding three times a day.
HSM is AP code for (Holy Shit Mode) or gosh what have I done panic.
Id say yes give em more water fill the tank but not so they can flop out.
I believe you may already be in HSM. Listen to MONYA he know these fish. Stop feeding them. They wont starve. Realise as they eat they poop and more ammonia. Good that you have plenty of water on hand, just keep ahead of the ammonia rise and the fish will survive fine.

LOL if she was not in HSM before, she probably is by now GF! Hang in there Forest, prevention is the best cure. Keep a close eye on it and keep us all posted

LOL, think forest put us all in HSM.

I just went up and checked my fish, to make sure there was no flashing

Perverted Fish they aught to be arrested.

I'm not quite in HSM yet. It takes a bit to get me there. Mind you, AP might be the one thing to do it.

Here are our holding tanks. After reading your responses, we are filling both tanks and dividing the fish into the two tanks. Both hold 160 litres and we'll filling to 3 inches from the top. And we'll stop feeding. I thought them all being in there to tgether and cosy, being fed three times a day + morning and afternoon tea would be best for them. LOL! I still have a lot to learn.

Thanks for your help, everyone.