Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Posted in another thread because I Thought it was where everyone went, but looks like I was about to hijack it. So I have 60 or so goldies in my FT which is about 250 gallons with two SLOs. Its the initial startup of the system and I recently had algae bloom. I first had the thin film along everything which I read is a good but the water got cloudy and I noticed string algae started to form on the interior edges in my SLOs. Ive noticed algae on the rocks where the water exits onto the GB media but it hasnt gotten any worse than a little. This past week Ive been having anywhere from 1 to 2 goldies die off a day. They are only the smaller of the bunch and maybe a medium size but max inch and half big. The 4 or 5 three inch goldies I have seem ok. I told myself I would get really worried if the larger ones died. I tarped the tank and stopped feeding 3 days ago. I wasnt able to check my tank yesterday so today I came to find 6 small ones dead. I noticed their bellies looked dark. Could I have just been overfeeding and in conjunction with the algae could they have gotten gut rot and died?

Its only been warmer her in GA for the past two weeks so might they have not started to have high metabolisms in the warmer weather? I know Im going to go through some deaths and changes as the system establishes itself, but Im just hoping to not have a crash. I didnt really do a cycle. I had my setup then a disaster happened with my sump and I had to dig everything back up and redo my setup. SO i had my fish stock and I seeded. EVerything is sprouting up nicely this first week.

Well I don't know exactly what is going on but it could be a combination of things. I would block the light from the tank to kill the algae. The algae will use up the oxygen at night if there is too much of it. It can also alter the pH. I would also look at your water parameters. Any ammonia will be more toxic at higher water temperatures and higher pH. The cloudiness in the water could have been a microbial bloom of some sort if there were excess nutrients in the water so make sure you remove any uneaten food. 60 Goldies is a lot depending on the size and warmer water doesn't hold as much oxygen as cooler water does so this might have contributed as well.

If there's a lot of algae then it's best to gradually kill it off because the dying algae could use up the oxygen in the water.

Are the fish eating this algae?

Hope this helps

Thanks. No I dont think they're eating the algae. I just took another 6 or so out of the tank today. Im getting the greenwater look now in both my ST and FT. Im trying to block out all sun light I can and have the patience needed for it to balance out. I remember when I did my first little one barrel system I had 6 gold fish in there and they all died out. SO I turned around and bought 3 and they lived happily and are actually still present but now in the larger system. Possible I over stocked for the initial setup and now Im bound to loose goldies? I dont see them coming to the surface for air and they seem to be keeping to the bottom of the tank. Still an oxygen issue maybe?

SO today I blacked out my tank to help kill off some of this algae. It gave me a chance to watch the fish a bit. I can see them bite the dust lol. They are the only ones that come to the top, then kinda float oddly, they dont get startled from my movement which they always have, and when the pump is on they just kinda dont fight the flow and bounce off things then...death. So I did a test today...

It looked to match 2 ppm ammonia but the picture looks more like 4...



Im sure theyre getting enough oxygen


I thought maybe ich but all of them look spotless.

Yup, ammonia toxicity fried em

So basically I kinda dont have a choice besides wait it out and until my system establishes itself. I guess Ill pull all the ones I can see and transfer them into a barrel of new water till I see the ammonia drop.

Well it is possible to cycle your system with fish as well... Often times I prefer cycling with fish actually. You will just have to pay attention to your ammonia and nitrite levels and know what to do when either spikes.

Yeah. I had a disaster with a little flooding of rain destroying my sump setup before this one so I felt kinda rushed and decided to just start everything up at once which I know some do. I guess its a good thing I actually needed to add water to my system. Being we dont have a city hook up I didnt want to pull 400 gallons off my well in one day. The fiasco left with just enough water to start cycling and Ive been added a barrels worth here and there. Basically added about 100 gallons tonight so that should dilute the levels a little bit considering that is probably around 25% of my entire systems water.