Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

...errrr, can't help yo on the fish problem

1 I thought about that too, but didn't want to go too big so I would still be lifting debri from the bottom. the way it is right now it flows from the bottom unless the beds are draining in which case it flows over the top of both pipes. I will work on this I hope this weekend.

2 I thought of this too, but those where the only stainless screws I had at the time.

3 see answer 2



Anyway, I'm not sure how long that fish was dead. he was the smallest fish that went into the system, and he some how wiggled his way under the bottom of the drain and got stuck. Didn't notice him till yesterday, but I'm almost positive he was alive friday.

By the way, catching fish in a barrel is not as easy as it sounds.

especially when they are trout and there is 100 of them lol

Don't you have any dynamite Clovis?

No. Wonder what that would do to the pH? Think I could get a bacteria bloom afterwards? or would it kill it all?

I noticed a slight green tint to my water, algae? Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?

I know the subject of "pea soup" has been discuss at length here, and that it will clear eventually, but what does it mean? Nitrates are rising?

Thanks,
Steve

Woo Hoo, I'm a "Valued Contributor!"

Some how I doubt that.

What happened to edit post abilities?

yep you have nutrients Shade the tank, and oxygenate the water - it will clear.

They have taken away our training wheels

Todays test results.

NH3 has dropped to zero.
NO2 is holding at about 1ppm.
NO3 is up to about 40 ppm
pH is up a bit to 7.8
water is still a little green, but not bad. But there is a thin layer of algea on every thing in the system it appears. Is this anything to worry about, or as long as it doesn't stop the business up don't worry about it?

Thanks,
Steve

Close Clovis... Close..... watch for that nitrite to drop \/

Yep, I also like my sleeve MUCH bigger than my standpipe. Also, what does the screw in question do? I normally just let my sleeve pipe float over the fixed standipe.

I used screws to hold the outer pipe in position from the inner pipe - give it stability....think Clovis has done the same thing with 4 screws spaces evenly around the pipe S'man

Actually just three.

This was on my to do list for this past weekend, but ended up having to wrk so didn't get a chance to fix it yet.

I did plant the tomatos out of my aerogarden in to my system. They weren't doing so hot in here for some reason.

Nup, you're wrong there CLovis, just went back and counted again

one...two...four

see

So....all my fish died. I took some water samples that I haven't tested yet, then drained the whole thing, and refilled, which may not have been the right thing to do, but too late now. Restocked with 3 dozen minnows. We'll see what happens. I think I know what killed the fish, and I removed the source, but will never know for sure unless the tests show something odd.

Greens are sprouted, banana peppers haven't yet, and I planted some cucumbers today. Greens seemed to do better when they were shaded so I planted the cucumbers on the edge of one bed and the greens are in the other. the plant is to trellis the cukes over the greens and see how it goes.

since I know you are wondering what I think killed my fish....I had some tomatos growing in an aerogarden, and they weren't doing so hot indoors so I planted them in my growbed. I thought I had rinsed the roots well, but I am thinking not good enough, and the nutrient residue is what I think might have killed the fish.

2 of my original minnows were still alive, and my turtle is fine.

after spending all day working on it to get it going again...then one of my nephews stepped on the drain line out of the tank, and it has sprung a leak now.

Will have to move fish to sump, pipe drains to sump, drain and dry tank, caulk fittings again and let that cure, them reverse process.

What kind of damage am I looking at in terms of the bacteria I did have? will the relative lack of ammonia have an affect on them, or will they just sit and chill till the levels increase again? Am I looking at having to do the complete cycle over again? Growbeds were not touched in this whole process with the exception of filling the dump tank to flood bed every once in a while (about three times while the system was down, which was about 6 or 7 hours.)

Thanks,
Steve

P.s. does this count as an HSM?
Does that make two now?