Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thats for sure! ..and thats why I have to try things myself first to see how it really works.

True enough Zen.... if you provide enough DO.... ala supplementing NFT channels... or fast flowing highly oxygenated raceway systems... ala Virgin Islands....

Works well enough for some plants anyway... but I still the results from using flood and drain are better....

The fish fed slightly again today. a total of maybe 120grams in 2 days.
Numbers 7/17
Ammo 0
Nitrite 0 to Trace
Nitrate 60ish
PH 7.2 - 7.4
Water temps down 6 - 7 degrees off norm


Rupe and Scottt helped me to understand- the rain and a cooler weather front, with much lower temps then we're had recently, may have caused the fish to stay low and not feed as normal.

With days of rain, I have drained almost 50% rainwater from the tank. hard to believe. (the farm guys needed it too)

Also cooler temps- day & night may have caused a slowing of bio conversion in the beds. No problem, the fish slowed eating.

Today I had TWO dead... stuck to the pump. One appeared to have the bends last night... since the water is prefect and has been... I don't think it's my fault. but there is the un-centered pump for for a few days in there with all the rain...

Photos look like ick some black spots and some white. These fish came with black spots, when I loaded the new fish, they had spots then, i thought it was normal.

I think I have an out-break or the effects are worse at cooler temps cuz of the parasite's life cycle ( Zen gave me a book to study... Watch-out lol) In the book, it points to another possible factor,

I have salted main tank but... should I move all the fish from the main tank, to starve the parasite's from a host? raising the sick tank to above X temp speeds parasite life cycle cuz at some point, the parasites are Sub dermal and not affected by dips/washes... and so... What?, now they swim a shorter distance in a smaller tank to find a new host and start over? I see no solution to this cycle... unless there is a food safe Med I can use in the sick tank when the parasites are hunting a new/different host. Can this be feasible done to 196 fish?

There must be... "Balance in the Force, Luke", so what is the binary in nature for this Ick/ black, white spots?

I'm blaming this on the fish/stock source. What a racket put them in your pond and you wouldn't even know. Now, I know why they keep the water so cold... it's not just food control, like I thought- it's also bug/parasite control! Sourcing a big deal in this "fish is my own food process"

Pics next.

I'm ranting, sorry!
All is dismayed and pissed

thanks

Bummer for the loss. Do keep in mind that many fish diseases are everywhere and simply attack when a fish gets stressed, it does not necessarily mean that your source had bad fish.

What kind of catfish are those, they look a bit different from my channel catfish?

I had one die not too long ago, it was one that had a sore on it's back for a while though. I have tried salting on the catfish when I did see some white patches on them before. It seems that catfish are pretty sensitive to salt and it looked as if the salting made things worse for a while. Also, moving my catfish up to the top tank and then salting them again at a later time really seems to have stressed them (that is when I think the sore appeared on the one fish that died over a month later.)

I've decided not to stress too much about trying to treat my catfish for anything unless lots of em start dieing. If I notice one in obvious distress, I'll catch it and move it to a quarantine tank to try and treat it. If it is in good enough shape to be difficult to net, then I don't want to stress them all by trying to hard at it.

it's all good, i'm not really sweating it.

+1 for TCL's reply

A couple of fish deaths are ok, salt will help the remaining.

3 more deaths this morning, I hope that's it now. Ohm Ohm...

With a small bi-feeding of 30grams each,Yersterday (fish stopped or was too slow, I removed almost all of the feed, am & pm feedings)

Ammo 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 60ish
Last Night's temps were 18c/64f



This Am feeding, Today's water temps are 24-25c/74-75f @ 08:00, they would not feed, almost ALL food was removed, less then 10% consumed just like yesterday's feeding routine. Ohm, Ohm...


...On a Quest for even more accurate test readings...

The Monkey builds a tool lol.





I plumbed a center pipe and drilled 1/2" holes along it.


Adding the multipul inlet ports have allowed me to almost completely shunt the bi-pass valve, meaning less water wraps the beds.



This leaves just a trickle of water that actually bi-passes the the GBs



Now the beds are more of a "Top Down" feed. Adding stand pipes create more of a complete DWC affect, rather than the "High Running" NTF style previously used.

Since I'm riding right on top of this thing. A hybrid of both should work nicely.

I will remove the stand pipes for night time running, when the plants are not working, allowing more air to the fish & bacteria... more of a NFT type system.

Transversely, during the day, when the plants are working; I will replace the stand pipes and flood DWC style. This is the way I usually treat new plants with short tap roots.

All is... Ohm, Ohm lol

thanks

The yin and yang of it all,

the good- the fish feed real ravenous like, I left them hungry at 80grams. water temps at the time of feeding was 28c/82f

the bad- 3 more fish dead. covered in sub-dermal pus like spots and one with no color like Albino, eyes clear appear normal. Ick i guess

I treated the whole tank with this Immune-Plus from Tropical Science, it's like, "closing the barn-door after..."

I like the company

thanks

dang.

So is that treatment safe for food systems?

Didn't happen to notice the colour of the dead fishes gills did you Don...

I wonder if it is more of a toxic thing? Maybe something leaching from the pool?

TCL, yes food safe (just bugs)

Rupe, the gills are pink/red not bloody

OB, Tanic acid? found a black walnut seed in there few days ago. It was still new and had not yet begun to breakdown. I thought.

Wouldnt think that one seed would do it, more thinking of the pool itself?

How are the fish today? Any changes?