Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Robyn, they mean that the seeds have been treated with a poison, the plants won't be pink, just the seeds

Thanks, Purrsikat - glad to know someone is enjoying my thread - I am addicted and thoroughly enjoying the experience! Love my fishies, and so looking forward to tasting my aquaponic vegies!

Thanks Jaymie - we were discussing the seeds I was hoping to plant, and I realized Faye was referring to pink powder on the seeds themselves! (Pity about the plants not becoming pink - One of my favourite colours so I could have been tempted to plant them in the dirt garden if they guaranteed Pink Peas!!)

Great to see you have success Robyn..
My goldies changed colour also..The pH is a touch high but you will find the fish will bring that down..
Do you have any airstones in your system for really hot days??
I find that the temperature changes stress my fish out a lot in a 1000L tank but seeing your tank is buried u might be lucky..

system
LB

RobynT, in your first photo page 1, you have some corrigated iron garden beds. How much did they cost?

AP

Hi Aussie, I saw these at the Caboolture markets last Sunday, didn't price them then but will do so next visit for ya

Thanks Les

AP

Hi Robyn, the main seeds I've found that have been treated with fungicide are corn seeds, and they are generally treated with Thiram. Thiram warnings say that it's toxic to fish so I generally don't use corn seed directly in the beds, though even bought corn seedlings tend to still have the pink on sprouted seeds, though I haven't had had any bad reactions from planting seedlings in the beds. The seeds may not even be a serious issue, though it may be better to be safe rather than sorry.

Hi AP - These are part of my dirt garden and cost me just over $300. I noticed they have gone up now, but here is a link.

link

I think they get them from a company I got my rainwater tank from, so I'm sure any company that makes rainwater tanks could make something similar.

http://www.rainfilltanks.com.au/

Hi LB - After I figured my little fella was not ill but 'transforming' I checked it out on the internet and a number of people have experienced the change in colour, though most I saw were related to black comets changing back to orange! Re the PH, it is higher than I'd like, but quite consistent around 7.9 - 8.0. This confuses me as my tank water is 6.4 and most of the 1000l should be tank water by now!?! I do have the most ancient of air pumps which TimC believes came out of the ark!!! (Cheeky young'un is that TimC!!) It has four outlets and I purchased some new hose for it today as the old stuff was nearly had it! I actually prefer to use a small pump continuously pumping water around the ft, and only resort to the air pump manually once or twice a day, usually just an extra boost of oxygen before I tuck them in at night! or maybe during the hottest part of the day if I am home! I hope to relegate it to the emergency spares cabinet as soon as I decide which brand would be a good buy for my setup. Hopefully the hot weather is nearly over, though I notice you Melbournites are in for a super hot day tomorrow!

Thanks EB - I will watch for fungicides when I get to plant some corn. Re the pea seeds, I only planted a couple so will see how they go. They did not show any signs of fungicide powder, so hopefully there will be no ill effects on the fish.

The black markings of the comet could be linked to pH, it has been noticed that different colours appear or flash more than others for Koi depending on pH. As koi and goldfish are related it could be that, nobody's sure of it all i know as an example is that french blue koi turn to black in harder waters of england. There must be something linked to pH and the elements in the water, i suppose.

Anyway your system is going fine and that's very good news, keep it up and have fun.

Hi Robin, I have had several goldfish that started out green, became black and orange over a few months, then after that the black disappeared and they were all orange.

Thanks everyone, especially Live Beyond, Amacafish and Dave Donley - it is comforting to hear that others have had their comets change colour. Yes, it may have something to do with the PH as it is quite consistently up around the 7.8 - 8.0 mark, though one night when I left the air pump on all night!!! it reached 8.2 in the morning - are these two things related??

My Ammonia readings have consistently showed a trace, with nitrite being consistently 0 and my nitrates somewhere between 20 and 40 now. However, when I tested this morning the Ammonia was between .25 and .5 and as the PH is currently 8.0 I worried - probably fed them too much last night - they had some celery leaves and zucchini in there during the day.

So this morning I bucketed 8 buckets of their water onto my dirt garden - I am expecting them to sparkle by tomorrow!! - and then put 10 buckets of rainwater in to compensate. Together with not feeding this morning - Jeez they looked so sad and confused!!! I hope this helps bring the Ammonia down.

Have a great Easter all! Maybe my fishies will be large enough to have an Easter feast on them next year!!!

Well, had an “OOPS” today – not really HSM, but had the potential to be more serious than it was!

Had a great Easter yesterday, driving to Toodyay for a family meal, eating too much as my sister-in-law is a wonderful cook – and then there were those dreadful chocolate things – needed to eat them so there would be no temptations left today!!! Anyway, by the time I drove home I was tired and it was dark. When I went to feed the fishies (no Easter eggs for them, but a double dose of NickC’s wonderful dried shrimp as a treat!) the pump was on so I unplugged it so the food wouldn’t disperse! Now, I’m sure that you would lay odds that I forgot to plug the pump back in!! Well, sort of – I plugged it back in but not properly. Now, I always head out there before retiring, telling them what good little fishies they are, and how they need to keep growing nice and quick like – but being over-tired, I went to bed real early and didn’t bother to say goodnight!

A very slow morning – eating too much certainly slows me down – must have produced too much ammonia as I was sluggish and certainly didn’t feel like eating breakfast!!! Alas, my fishies were ignored until about 9:30!!! Went out and noticed that some chives I had transplanted about 9pm last night really looked jaded – and it clicked that I hadn’t heard the pump at all. Needless to say it hadn’t kicked in for the last 13 hours or so!

Turned pump on then did a quick test of the ammonia – yikes – it was up at 0.5. Nitrite was 0. Did a PH and luckily it was only 7.4 (it usually sits at 7.8 - 8.0.) Bucketed out five lots to the dirt garden then carted 8 buckets of water from the water tank.

Was supposed to pick up some tilapia from TimC & NickC this weekend – will wait until 4pm to re-test the ammonia, but I may see if I can leave the tilapia until tomorrow if the numbers are not right.

Im sure it'll be ok Robyn. Once it starts cycling again it'll all be fine. Wonder why it lowered the PH though??? Any thoughts

The ammonia would acidify the water.... no pumping to growbeds... no nitrification happening JJ

ooh aa Robyn, naughty, naughty. I can't talk I had a couple of little episodes. Sometimes we learn the hard way. All 's well that ends well. Lucky it didn't happen before you went to toodyay.