Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

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Work with what you now have and know .. get that cycle working and add some new fish.. even Goldies or Koi cull

And especially that pH. Get that down to 6.5ish, so that there is lower toxicity to the N's....
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**UPDATE**

OK.. to answer some of the earlier stuff.. they are half 55gal drums.. 4 of them.. and the pool is a kiddie inflatable pool at 500gal.. as I plan on adding 4 more 1/2 barrels. Next season I will get an IBC for the fish as it's 1000gal.. anyway.. the Ammonia was at 2ppm because I added ammonia after the fish had all died.. to cycle the fishless system..

Now the update.. the system has been cycline fishless since 1st week of july when I lost the last addition of 30 fish after all the rest had died.. ANYWAY.. I have good news to report.. PH is on the way down it was at 7.8 from 8.8 last week.. I have basically left it all alone on a friend's aquarium advice that sometimes it's best to just forget about it and leave it alone.. I was treating it like my old aquarium set up when I was breeding fish that I always had to do something each day.. anyway.. the forget it method has worked.. PH is on the decline.. everything right now is 0.. the plants are growing excellent..... I even have corn growing .. when it came to plants I went all out.. I have two egg plants growing on the plant, I have a cucumber that is growing (lost 3 with the high PH).. hot peppers are growing, and the peas 3rd crop are growin.... I am super stoked..

I am going to add a couple fish next week if the PH continues on this drop and everything stays balanced. I plugged in the kiddie pool filter to help keep the water moving.. also a central pond pump for breaking waters surface, plus the pond pump that fills the grow beds.. I will be buying a larger air pump next pay period.

Hopefully I am not jinxing things.. but so far so good.........

Just read you killed all your fish by trying to change the pH, I have done the same. Didn't read any of the replies. Your first sentence said everything was fine working well. One thing I have learnt, happy fish, happy plants, the rest takes care of itself. Sometimes readings and intervention (human) trying to change things, when everything was fine, is what messes things up. my nitrates are well over 160 but my fish are happy and so are my plants, We need to look at the picture not the readings

Thanks wick ham... They all started in trouble when oh spiked.. I finished them off changing things... Then ph wouldn't come down... Nothing I did would level it ou... Tried other fish see if they would adapt... Nope dead...so now it's fish less to see if it balances in its own...I'll add fish once it balances! Like you said wickham, we need to look at the picture, not the readings!