Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

ok , won't add any more

its 1600L & all thats gonna die is 2 ugly retarded goldfish and 7 tiny bream

Use Maxicrop instead.... or the little white balls of Urea from the "B" store...

I love the pond. It kicks ass. Do you have to worry about leaks or anything with the membrane you used? I was thinking of doing something similar to that.

Keep up the pics!

Yeah, I thought thrive was really bad? There would be stuff in it thats not in the chemical analysis.

2 goldfish and 4 little feeder fish are still kicking , 24 hours after adding the Thrive

Ammonia is stable at 1 by the looks of it - was at 1 when I checked at 9am , is still at 1 now at 3:30

Nitrite is steadily climbing
was almost at 0.25 thismorning at 9 , now its closer to 0.5

I'll chekc again in 8 hours or so and again in the morning

I'd seeded this system with water , poop , gunk and a small amount of gravel from the established system , I'll be pretty impressed if the ammonia boost from the Thrive makes the whole thing cycle quicker

The 7 tiny bream that are in the blue bucket thats plumbed into this system havent shown any reaction to the Thrive , or the sudden hike in ammonia & nitrite

WAter tests for today :

midday water temp 17 degrees
AMMONIA is at 1 , the colour is tending a little towards 0.5 so Im guessing its on its way down because ....
NITRITE is on its way uo from 0.25 , closer to 0.50 now
pH is rising very slowly , its closer to 7.5 now , up from 7

The water in the blue barrel is extremely cloudy , the bream dont seem to mind at all , if anything theyre eating MORE food

I think the pH rise and the cloudy water is because of the large chunk of limestone sitting at the bottom of the blue barrel - the sudden drop in pH from being plumbed into the lagre pond system with pH 7 ( barrel was at 9 ) has affected the limestone & the easily dissolveable bits are fizzing away like mad . I suppose it doenst really matter , I could take the limestone out , or I could just let it magically stabilise

I'll be jumping and cheering if I see a Nitrate reading before Saturday , then my 100 silver perch can go straight into their fully cycled new home !

Should be right by then

Where's the pics???

Well, in the last two weeks across a couple of forums - people have been adding thrive, and had no fish deaths....I wonder if the original person who added thrive, and lost all of their fish, added waaay too much?

I wont risk it at the moment

Well , it looks to me like Thrive WORKS :
checked today while Duckpond was over - ammonia is down to 0.50 , nitrite is up to 1 !

havent checked for nitrate yet , but I bet theres already some there from the thrive , so I dont think a nitrate test will be any indicator as to whether the right bacteria is there or not

No fish deaths since putting Thrive in , bream are eating more - even coming to the top of the 200L blue barrel when they see me put food in

Water temp in the black-painted pond was 20 degrees at lunchtime today , lookin good for silver perch !

The water in the IBC system with trout was at 15-16 degress at the same time as this system was at 20

now to get a move on and work out where to buy isophthalic fibreglass resin ( the stuff at bunnings has styrene in it ) , then fibreglass the inside of this damn wine barrel so I can add another 200L to the system & get all the plumbing set up properly

What I think happened with the Thrive that other people used is exactly as OBO suggests - WAAAAY too much

This system is 1600 litres , I added 36 GRAMS , and it pushed ammonia to 1 within 12 hours ...
couple days later & its dropping , but Nitrites at 1 .
If I'd added even another 10 grams my fish would all be dead

pH was on the rise today , up towards 8 from the 7.5 that it reached yesterday . I removed the chunk of limestone from the blue barrel and will test again tomorrow morning . I think its either that , or the bitumous sealer causing it to move . I sure hope its not the bitumous sealer ....

Be interesting to watch long term.

I think you should add some Seasol,

you cheated with the Trive because you read and understood the packet and followed the directions

Jaymie has heaps, I her system I don't think it effected theirs!

You could be right on that assumption OBO...I saw the state of the survivors the next day (they didn't last too long after that tho) and it definitely put me off experimenting with it...I suppose anything in moderation would be okay tho (but not this guy )

Water tests for today

midday water temps
this system 21 degrees
IBC system 17 degrees

Ammonia is at ....
ZERO !

Nitrite is at 1 & doesnt look like going down , gonna have to add some salt to make sure the fish Im getting tomorrow survive .
The Black Bream fingerlings dont seem to mind the nitrite at all , theyre eating like mad and come almost to the surface whenever they see me

pH is going up slowly , its possible that its either the Thrive pushing it up , or the black bitumous sealer that lines the whole pond ....
I sure hope its not the bitumous sealer or I'll be forever chasing pH

How to lower it ...
Add some lemon ?
or am I getting it the wrong way around

anyway - 17ppm salt here we come