Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My in-laws live in Boone, so I know what kind of weather you get there. Good Luck!!! BRRRR!

Another dead one this morning.

"Now what are we going to do for Christmas dinner?!?"

DD, take successive deaths as a sign, have you tested water??

No tests left. I need to buy another pH test, same with ammonia. I'm hoping it rains enough today that I can change out water rather than just topping off.

My drains have been very clogged, so much that the two grow beds were overflowing onto the ground and the pump was running close to dry this morning. One more fish dead. I spent some time adding more water, and sliding around the the planters and putting wedges under them to get the water to fall into the fish tub instead of on the ground. Then I realized I can pull the drain pipes and shorten them to adjust the level, duh. There were stringy roots that had clogged up the slots at the bottom of the pipes. I got rid of those, shortened the pipes, and now the water level is below the gravel on both. If the fish deaths are from something in the water then maybe it is largely gone, because over the last two days it has been changed out almost 100%.
I bought some chelated iron today that only has nitrogen, sulphur, and iron in it. I am hoping the fish return to their ususal perky selves in the next few days.

Good Hope that does it, although not sure how perky one could get knowing the plans for x-mas dinner.

Big one dead this morning.

What are your water temps overnight?

Hi Sexy:
Good question, I don't know. It has been getting down to the 60s at night around here lately. I would think the 100 gallons of water were somewhat stable temp-wise over 24 hours. From day to day it may move with the weather.
Do you think I should put in a heater?

No, goldfish can tolerate "Non" tropical temps + you had them in this tank for awhile now, and your overnights aren't freezing. I thought you had a real low overnight spike.

Now I'm thinking spike in water quality. Something you said in your post raised a flag



anaerobic pockets or colonies of bacteria that are intensely concentrated in your roots or grow media in your grow bed come loose if you disturb the bed. It can be toxic to fish if allowed to drain into the tank, especially in a smaller system where this toxic doseage cannot be dilluted. If you added new water, it's possible the sudden change in ph, temp, or bacteria sent one or more fish into shock. I have killed many a fish this way.

Fair call. I've mentioned this before in regards to yabbie caught from a dam. the anerobic bac. get trapped in they yabbie because they "clam up" when taken out of water. That is why they should be placed in freah water as soon as you pull them from the dam.

Makes sense that if the concentration was high enough then it could kill fish. Also if the fish are stressed from PH / temp shock then thye will be less able to fight infection.

Good call, MF

The problem is that more died before doing this (like 6) than after (1). None dead this morning.

You still think it was copper then Dave?

Maybe
It could have been the pH gradually falling again, although I added cruched oyster shells to try to mitigate that from the last episode.
It could have been the low temperatures we had last week, although 50 degrees at night is not outside their range and the water volume would have buffered the highs and lows somewhat.
It could have been the chelated iron with copper in it.
Nowadays it wouldn't surprise me if more died, simply because I changed almost all the water out and all the water parameters were likely different, but I would do it again instead of watching them die one by one like the little ones before.
I can't tell if the water parameters are fine or not (will buy more tests after work today), but I suspect that ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all fine. The only one that I think might be questionable is the pH. If that is fine then what would it be? I have only been adding food, a little sea salt from time to time and the chelated iron from time to time that has copper in it. I haven't been overfeeding them, the food amount has been constant. Algae are only seen near the spray bar outlets and not in the fish tub.

60 at night would have been ok, but....50 is pushing the limit for goldfish. I believe goldfish are weak anyway, but keeping them near the threshold may have overtaxed them when the Ph started to change. It's hard to say exactly without water samples, but in any case goldfish are furiously inbred and mortality is common in large populations. Heck, I took my little girl to the fish store Sunday where they have a huge goldfish pond stocked with at least 300 fish. At any given time there are 5-10 floaters which my daighter likes to poke with her fingers...haha.