Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi,

Today I came home and I discovered that I had one trout dead and floating on the surface and another trout weakly floating upside down and looking like it didn't have much longer left. Within about half an hour the second trout was dead.

To give a little background, this is my first system and it is an IBC setup with CF. I have only just set up the system and have been cycling for a week and a half so far and I put 12 trout yearlings in on Saturday. I have been feeding the trout once a day with a very small handful of floating feed. On Sunday one of the trout jumped out and wasn't discovered for a while so before the two died today I was down to 11 trout. When I put the trout in on Saturday the water stats were: pH 7.4, ammonia 0.25, nitrite 0 and nitrate 0. I don't have any stats on DO but on Sunday I hooked up an air pump and have two air stones running in the tank. I checked the stats again today and they were: pH 7.4, ammonia 2, nitrite 0, and nitrate 0.

Does anyone have an idea as to why my trout have died? I thought it might have been the temperature as it reached 32 degrees today (up from a top of 23 yesterday) but they have this white stuff on their bodies (see photo).

My guess is water temp, is 32 the air temp, and do you know what the water temps are? The gross stuff is I think white fungus. Someone who knows better will chime in.

If you have not add salt to your fish tank, you need to do so.

I think your ammonia is on the high side. See attached chart of relationship of ammonia, water temperature and pH.



I would consider a water change out of 30% to reduce the ammonia level. Stop all feeding at once until the ammonia drops close to 0. I know it is tempting to feed but if you continue you would most likely be feeding dead fishes in a few days time.

Also as advised, add natural salt. 1kg per 1000L of water. Work out how much you need. It mitigates against nitrite poisoning, the next stage in the cycling process.



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