Backyard Aquaponics
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100 50mm goldfish,1000 lt tank,1000 lt growbed,flood and drain,3ths old seedlings just starting to grow,ph 7.2,ammonia 8ppm,water temp 12C,fish hanging aronnd water fall one floater and some gulping.we added 150 drops of water ager acn in 5% water change and ramped water retic through biological filter and media bed to constant flow,stopped feeding.Today all levels the same but fish are down the bottom and moving around less happily than normal.There is no chlorine ,KH test is 161 ppm.Just checked fish and they are swimmig around now the sun is on the water.What next please help

Water change to get the ammonia down before all you fish go belly up.
And if your not salting I'd throw some in. Sea salt 1 to 2 ppt(1kg per 1000ltrs = 1ppt)

I must say that I am no expert but if your ammonia is that high at those pH and temperature, it is actually toxic for the fish. In addition to that, I think you might have nitrites in your system which is also toxic to the fish and if I am not wrong it does affect the fishes behaviour and respiratory functions.

See http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=132

The issues listed in the thread seems to be similar to what you are indicating on your fishes behaviour.

Depending on the nitrite level, water change and salt. Definitively need salt. Read further in the thread and it explains why.
Also air. Need lots of air, if you don't really have an air pump, go get one. Or run your pump constantly and let the water reentering into the fish tank, splash hard onto the surface, it should increase aeration.

Is your source water for water changes treated with chlorine? Do you have access to well water you could use for water changes that wouldn't require aging to get rid of the chlorine? If the source water is actually treated with chloramine, then part of the high ammonia reading is probably from the ammonia part of the chloramine (since the water ager gets rid of the chlorine but leaves the ammonia to be dealth with by the bio-filtration) but still needs to be dealt with. Zeolite might help there.

With an ammonia reading of 8ppm I'm not holding out a lot of hope for your fish. When cycling up a system with fish, it is usually best to avoid letting the ammonia or nitrite get too far above 1 or 2 ppm.

When did you start the system? What do the water tests show on your source water (after the ager is applied)? Important things to know/tests to do during cycling are
1-pH
2-Ammonia
3-Nitrite
4-Nitrate
5-Water temperature

During cycling especially, make sure you have plenty of aeration. The fish hanging out under the "waterfall" can indicate they need more aeration and are looking for better water quality.

I agree that you probably need to do some extensive water changing but I don't know enough about your source water to feel good about giving advice on how to go about it.

If things keep going poorly, (if fish don't survive) I will recommend you look up fishless cycling and do that before you spend any more money on fish.

Thanks Duffight,Ivansng andTCLynx for your help.Amazingly our goldies are still alive and although they are showing some spazmodic swimming and hanging around waterfall a little more than before the ammonia spike they seem ok,they sure have anapetite since we cut back feeding.By continual running we got the ammonia levels down to 2ppm and the ph to 7 with correction,hardness has also droped,so we got confident and started flood and drain for 15hrs resulting in another ammonia spike of 8ppm,so back to constant and it came down to 2ppm.plants are definatly taking off and showing good colour.We will test source water as sugested and let you know,i guess they are pretty tough little fish thankfully thanks again

Until your ammonia and nitrite reach 0, you should have the system running constant flood then drain then flood then drain etc. No shutting things off. If you have extra aeration (like air pump and air stone, then put them in!!!!!! as your poor fish are suffering.)

You haven't told us what the Nitrite readings are. That is even more toxic to fish than the ammonia though 1 ppt of salt can help temporarily help the fish survive the Nitrite.

Most of us thing an ammonia reading of 2 ppm is time to panic. The ammonia reading should get down to 0 or at least between 0 and .25 ppm before you relax about the ammonia. Same with Nitrite.

Nitrate readings can help confirm that the ammonia and nitrite is being converted to the plant usable nitrate.

FYI your pH is likely to continue falling, don't let it go below 6.5 or the bacteria can stop working and cause spikes again. Some buffering material like shell grit used for chickens is often a good idea to have on hand. A pH of 7 is a good number to aim for. Don't go bouncing your pH around quickly though as sudden changes in pH are harder on all the creatures involved (fish bacteria etc.)

How are you managing your flood and drain? Siphons or timer?