Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

3,000 gallons per minute??? Even at 3,000Gallons per hour I'd be questioning that on a $90 pump.

My car can do 160 mph ..... just need to find a tall enough cliff.

You really should try to calculate your "head" or water flow resistance and choose a suitable pump.Some pumps are designed for high flow-low resistance,,,others low flow high resistance,,,others somewhere in between.

I just got back from a week's vacation and my system was still intact . My son was coming out daily and feeding the fish and keeping an eye on things. Good thing I had the alarms all working because it prevented what could have been a huge mess and loss of system water.

Now here is the question: My instructions for feeding were a little off. I meant to give him food portions in Teaspoons but instead wrote Tablespoons. That's a factor of three. I thought I was feeding the correct amount because it was taking about 15 minutes most of the time for the fish to clean up their food.

He of course didn't stick around to find out how long it was taking them to eat, he just knew that when it was time for the next feeding, all the food was gone.

My plant growth while I was gone was more that it's ever been and my water quality is still good.

Ammonia .25
Nitrites 0
Ph 7.6
Nitrates 40

Now, do I go back to my old feeding schedule or continue to pump the feed to them?

Would seem that the systems coped just fine with that level of feed for a week Jazz...

The ammonia reading isn't enough to warrant any great level of concern....

Water's clear... nitrates at a good level... plants booming.... fish happy...

Think the answer is keep the feed level up... just a note to self to keep an eye on it for a day or two...

Give them all they can take, monitor ammonia

If you push the system, it will respond

I vote for keeping the feed up. (I notice my tilapia are a little slower to finish off their food, they seem to like it to get soft before they finish it.)

However, you probably need to check around to see if there is any rotting uneaten food or fish poo collecting somewhere that needs to be cleaned out which might be giving you that elevated ammonia reading.

How was your vacation?

If all is eaten and plants flourish, then stick with it!

Thanks to all. I'll keep up the feeding and monitor. TC the vacation was nice. Went to Michigan to friends on a big lake... Good weather!! I don't have perfect solids removal so once a week I vacuum the tanks that seem to collect it. My ammonia has never been 0.0 and I've always assumed the extra solids was the reason... Since it never goes over .25, I don't worry about it.

Yesterday was my first day back from vacation and as you can imagine, the whole trip I was thinking about the next addition to my system. Well here it is. Now I'm ready for all those things that need something to latch onto. Mostly tomatoes and a few pole beans.

Looks great!

Hey JPM, how many/big are your fish and how many tablespoons are you talking about? I am feeding mine 5 tablespoons twice a day, when there was more of them they were getting up to 8 tablespoons twice per day, until I noticed the nitrite spiking. This was about 40 fish at say six inches long each on average...

Hey DD. I have a total of about 90 fish that are getting the pellets. The run from 3.5" to about 9" with the average being probably around 5-6 inches. They were getting about 15 tablespoons while I was gone. They normally get about 5-6.

I cleaned out my tanks this morning and there was uneaten food in most of them. I'm going to cut back to what they'll eat in 30 minutes or so. I know this isn't a very scientific. Sometimes my fish won't eat right away because I spook them but I've pretty much figured out most of their patterns and I can tell if it's me or something else causing them to not eat.

Jazz ,,quote"I'm going to cut back to what they'll eat in 30 minutes or so. I know this isn't a very scientific.

I think you may be shocked to know about 80% of the worlds farmed fish are fed this way,,but usually 15 minutes feed time. It a tried and trusted method,,not perfectly accurate but a lot less work than weighing and calculating weekly.
I reckon a smallinneficiencyinfeed-rates is morethan acceptable in an AP system,,we collect clean,live fish which are near irreplacable in the marketplace.

Thanks Chappo. I'm glad to know that. I always assumed that commercial fish growers calculated everything. This does make sense though. You throw in food. The biggest/fastest get it first, then the others. After 15 minutes or so, everybody's full.

Jazz,,,It is measured etc in alot of commercial operations in Aus,US,Britain etc,,,but lets face it,,a large proportion of fish are grown in Asia under realitively primitive conditions.

Hey,,it works,,so why not use it:)

Love the beautiful colouring to the vine support...winced when I thought of removing the bean vines that twine themselves through the loops
(sorry Jazz, shouldn't have brought that up )