Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just been doing a lot more reading and have come to the same conclusion, just wasn't sure of how high to go with the salt.Thanks, going to the big smoke tomorrow so will get some pool salt ( cheaper ).
Quick question, is there a good way to accurately test the salt quantity in the tank?

salinity refractometer

any aquarium that has marine fish will sell them to you, but you can prick them up 75% cheaper on ebay

just thought I would let you know that I do read your posts and take note of your advice Steve

Hi Kelly just reading your thread and you havn't put me of yet just like yo know where you got those oval grow beds? Hows it all going? gonna use sacfificial goldfish for my start. Then feed em to the redfin

Les, i think ebay might also have pills if you're having trouble in the dept.

ouch

O.K got fish into a bathtub ( just finished putting it in getting ready for a second smaller system ). We filled the tub with water from the existing tank thinking that it would be less stress for the fish, then slowly added the premixed salt 10ppt. When I say slowly I mean 20lt all in in about 5 mins. After an hr the fish look settled and fine ( yes the bathtub is covered with a bit of wood ). How long should we leave them there before we put them back into the main tank?

People usually leave the fish in for a while unless the fish start to stress out.

I have left goldies in 20ppt overnight before - they were not real happy in the morning, but putting them back into fresh sorted them out.

[quote="Outbackozzie"]People usually leave the fish in for a while unless the fish start to stress out.

Righto so how long is a while? do I need to put them back tonight, that'll be about 4 or 5 hrs all up.

Should be enough - do you have salt in the main tank yet?

Just been out to pre mix the salt

yeh, generally high dose salt baths are done until the fish start to complain...............

i think it would be prudent to transfer them back out again before you go to bed. they might "complain" overnight when you cant tend to them

Once again thanks guys, we are down to 15 fish now but that would be 'no fish' if we didn't get this advise, cheers

Hi Elefant, think we should have started with goldfish too, they're a lot easier to look after but heh there's nothing like 'hands on' experience.
The grow beds we got from a local sheetmetal mob. They were $650 for the 2. The biggest mistake we made was not getting them aqualined. Apparantly you can get corri with an aqualined side, a problem we will have to deal with in the ( hopefully ) near future.
If you're going to get beds made up it's cheaper to get them in pairs. ie 1 sheet of corri = 800mm wide. grow bed = 400mm deep. You have too pay for a full sheet anyway so why not use the full sheet. The size of the beds we got were 2m x 1m x 0.4m with a bottom in them ( obviously ) all I had to do was drill a hole for a standard bath plug n waste.