Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Successfully transported 50 fish 400 km's with inverter & airpump!

Well done... and good choice of action....

As forecasted by other members I regret to inform everyone 10 rainbow trout fingerlings succumbed to nitrite poisoning yesterday! They then succumbed to my jack russel terrier, the dog was happy!

So I'm keeping feed down (once every three days) salting to 1 ppt and doing all I can to keep my chemical levels below 2 ppm (averaging about 1ppm) will the dying fish stabilize? I now have about 40 trout ... Strangely the weaker goldfish seem unaffected?

What deos the future hold for my fish ... And my dog?

Stop feeding.... and water change again... and stop feeding...

Resalt to 1ppt after any water change...

And did I say... stop feeding....

+1 Stop feeding

Ok how long can they last without food?

A week without problem... although being fingerlings they certainly would prefer being fed daily....

You need to get more grow beds online... then when you're cycled you'll be able to amp up the feed rate...

ok so to respond my situation is as follows

15 fish dead today

10 yesterday

just to "test" the health of the fish i threw in a couple of pellets ... the fish arent even eating, i think there all going to die!

im still doing everything possible to stop this but i think the nitrite levels have just caught up with them.

i cannot add more growbeds, i rent ... my system needs to be at least "sort of" portable.

i have a 1000L tank With a 200L growbed how many fish should i have had?

Now if i kill all my fish how should i proceed then?

just buy more and chuckem in?

Switch to fishless cycleing?

treat water?

do rediculus water changes?

and how can i avoid going here again?

input is appreciated!

Cheers

I would not be putting anymore than 10 fish in a new system that has not cycled, personally I think cycling should be done fishless as it takes the stress out of the senario, something you may be feeling atm, along with the fish.

Going fishless, though not an option atm, allows you to focus on the chemistry and get a feel of the system.

Once cycled no more than 20 in your configuration. If you want to do any more in a cycled system you need to check a few boxes including good aeration stable temps as temp changes the volatility of the nasty stuff, maybe a biofilter to help get the ammonia etc converted as you are limited for GB. If you are lucky and you are left with 20+ get yourself a 200ltr barrel fill it with air and bioballs and it will provide the GB buffer you need or get rid of some more fish.

Keep this in mind if any more drop off. You are not the first and you wont be the last that has had this happen. My father lost 100 first time round. Sad yes.

At the moment it is a waiting game and you have to be patient. DO NOT FEED THE FISH even if you want to see if they are OK, if they are not floating they are doing fine.

Doing a 1/3 water change may cause more problems especially if the new water does not have the same chemistry. If it is rain water you may be safe, test it and if levels are nil and the PH is not too different I would consider taking out 1 bucket and adding 1 bucket (10ltr) of new water every 30 minutes.

ANY CHANGES YOU DO MUST BE SLIGHT, YOU DO NOT WANT TO STRESS THE FISH OUT ANY MORE THAN THEY MAY BE NOW.

As I've said earlier. Use IBC of aquaponics as a guide to fish numbers for a system your size http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/Travi ... onics1.pdf

IF all the fish die. You PROBABLY won't need to start cycling from scratch, since u have an abundance of amm and nitrite in the system to fuel the bateria...unless uv somehow wiped out one of the colonies. Continue cycling fishless with humonia or Charlie carp.

+1 for 10 fish in immature system. But I would go even further to say - only 10 for the entire first season, and less than 10 for fish driven cycling.

When I cycle an aquarium or AP system FROM SCRATCH this is what I do.
1) run system for a 2-3 days without any plants or fish
2) introduce 2-3 cheap fish. I.e goldfish
3) feed sparingly after a couple of days
4) in 1.5-2weeks introduce 2-3 more fish
5) feed sparingly for a couple of days
6) continue running with few fish for 2 weeks
7) watch for signs of algea and biofilm in pipes and tank... This suggests good tank health, but don't let algea get out of control.
8.) check that ammonia and nitrites are back to zero 24hrs after a big feeding

Some members say it can take upto 6 weeks to cycle an AP system properly. Others opt to test their levels daily and watch for the ammonia and nitrite spike and fall to indicate a cycle. If using the latter approach remember that the cycled bateria colony population will be limited to your fish population. Still proceed with caution.

I tend to take the in between approach and only test levels when I intuitive think the tank has cycled.

It's not all doom an gloom. Once things are well cycled you don't have to be as careful or annel. I slowly pushed the number of gold fish in my large system to ten over a period of 6-8 weeks. Just dumped 20 trout handlings into the system (total 30) and all are happy so far with minimal feeding for 3 days.

Next season the gold fish will go, and I'll run 30-40 REAL fish.

2 dead last night
Water looks clearer though

I decided not to do any water changes because the levels weren't that bad

The first time in a couple of weeks I haven't had to do anything

The fish were looking a bit healthier to and the water was clearer

I'm not detecting any nitrate at the moment but I'm thinking that because the growbed is heavily stocked with plants they mite be using it all?

Deos that sound right? I've detected it in small amounts before!

What are you levels and temp?