Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

cool, did you bury the 50L under the surface?

how long can the fish go without food before they starve? i dont want to kill them with ammonia, but i also dont want them to starve to death.

depending on the size of the fish, one week, weeks or months (ask VB

We've had perch in the purging tank for 3 weeks and they STILL have a handful of fat in their gut cavity

i have been swapping the water with the duckaponics and changing out water to refill with tap water, and have kept the ammonia at .5ppm.

Boris01 put some azola in today to help use the ammonia so i hope that works. I lost my first fish today, i found it dead in the sand next to my system. I hope it was just an accident, not a desperate attempt to move to a better environment

i bought the steel today to build the GB frames so there is my weekend planned

oops , my thermometer was broken when i tested my water temps last few days , it wasnt 10 degrees it was more like 15 , just checked both mine and duckponds water ( with the same thermometer - he broke the one I bought him even before it was out of the packet ..)

17 degrees at 5:30 in the afternoon , suns just gone off the tanks and beds so I assume 17 was about the height of it today .

I'll check mine again at midnight & see what its like

I got a barely imperceptible nitrite reading thismorning , it waas still blue , but definitely a little more purple than normal . The reading of ammonia at the same time gave a slight dip in the ammonia level

both added some Azolla to our tanks , away from the trout as they eat it . Apparently its a close relative of duckweed but the lfs was out of that

Azolla sp. is a fern and duckweed, Lemna sp. is the smallest flowering plant

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1276

I GOT NITRATE

and my pH is neutral at 7.4

I gave up testing as i thought it pointless to measure something i could not control, so i focussed my efforts on building gb frames. there getting there but still plenty to do.

I am building a steel rectangle arouns the rim of each gb, then a steel rectangle around the whole imestone wall at the base of the gb. these will be joined by some steel uprights and the height clad in some 50mm x 50mm weld mesh. the bottom rectangle will have two extra ribs down the middle, and some cross braces. pics to come.

I keep losing fish, they jump out and i find them dead around the tank. Is this just over excited fish or are they hungry, or are they trying to get out of my crappy water?

I get my cement mixer back today, so i can finish the limestone, andadd a small wall above where the sink will go that can be tiled as a splashback.
I also will build a 2 bin composter out of limestone at the other end. it will be small at 1200mm x 600mm x 800mm / 2 but it will process any greenwaste from the system and the adjacent dirt garden. the compost will go into the dirt garden. if i get enought worms they will be a fish treat.

Hey Duckpond,
The trout will never stop jumping, either keep your water level down or get some cover. They launch themselves from the bottom of the tank when an insect flies over, very lively aren't they. Get used to it, it's great fun to watch
Lucky you
Faye

i suggested building miniature trampolines around the tank , but I dont think duckie liked that idea ...

I put bird netting over all of my tanks now as I was sick of finding trout laying around the edges every morning. I have even lost a few perch over the sides too so now there tanks are also netted.

i got nitrite of 1 today, did not check the other levels.

i saved my first fish, it was on the ground and i was about to bury it, and it moved so i got it back in the water and swam it for a while, when i let it go it sank, so i dunno if it worked. do fish always float when they die? could i have a layer of dead fish on the bottom of my tank

i still have green water, will this clear up, what is is caused by,

Yeah I placed shade cloth over the top as I found a crispy trout the other day

The green should dissappear after awhile DP, I think its alge in the water, the greenness in my system went when I started cycling.

mine was green but its been clearing up more each day , and now that they can see me , the trout arent scared theyre just hungry ,they already know who feeds them

I got nitrAte only 5 but its there. My Ph is down to 7.6 and my nitrite is showing a solid 0.25.
The ammonia is the remaining concern at 0.5 however i dont think any have died in the tank as none have floated. they could be dead on the bottom or eaten by the others. (that would explain the ammonia despite the limited feeding )

I put a bag of barley straw in the water to try to clean up the algae, so we will see if it actually works.

Does this mean i cycled in 2 weeks??

" I cycled in two weeks"

have you got a time machine ? How did you know you already went cycling before you went ?