Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes, please list your Tank sizes, fish sizes, and amount of fish in each tank. And the filtration system being used for each tank. Well done so far.

Hi Rupert,
To be honest, I am not sure. I supposedly purchased 120 fingerlings. I had some enthusiastic kids attempting to Help, who made some unusual actions, until they were told not to touch Anything without Express permission. I believe a jug of fish (a dozen maybe)went into a corrigated tank which catches the returns from the growbed. I cant even actually see them in there as I will need to cut the top off that tank to see in. Tank 1 (inside 40L) has got roughly half of them, and the rest outside in tank 2(70L).

Last night I added a fistfull of shell grit to tank 1. They all seem happier this morning. I will test the ph again when I get back from kids music lessons. They are not hungry. I dropped about 5 tiny crumbles in and not much interest in them.

Sorry fishgirl, you are obviously trying hard, but unless you eat the six big ones, and move the fingerlings to the outside 3500 litre tank with serious heating to keep the water temp STABLE at above 20, then I guess that most, if not all the fingerlings will be dead inside a week. I have a feeling you have no cycled filtration happening and the constant water changes and fluctuations are going to get the better of them soon. It's just my opinion, and I hope you can prove me wrong, but I have seen the amount of ammonia 200 little silvers can create in 1000 litres so 120 barra in those aquariums is just asking for trouble. Those big ones need to be bbq's to save the littlies IMHO.

I tend to agree - I had a larger number of barra in a 50 litre aquarium for a number of weeks, but had preprepared biofilter running - bigger than normal aquarium cannister filters.

Just got myself Fishgirl.... afraid I have to agree with Monya... just way too many fish in the aquariums...

And ditto... I'd eat the big fish... and grow 100+ replacements....

Umm, went back and re read the posts, sounds to me like there are 120 fish spread between a total of less than 150 litres of water?

Well, I took all the fingerlings out of Tank 2 and put them in the big tank outside. They seem fairly happy, but are always hiding under the brick house I put in there. I put a mesh divide down the middle to separate them from the big fish. Howver the big fish dont seem to be eating. Today one is listing on his side.

Tank inside
Ammonia 8
Nitite 0.25
Nitrate 5

Tank outside
Ammonia 0.5
Nitrite 0.05
Nitrate 5

Today we are making a big bio filter out of a beer fermenter until we can get more grow beds happenning for the outside tank.
For the inside tank, they smell abit, and it is cloudy but they see pretty frisky in comparrison with the outside fish. I put ammonia Lock into the tank and added more enzyme to both tanks.
The fish in the aquarium jump around to eat but the fish in the outside tank just hide. I dont know if they are eating or not. I havent seen the big fish eat yet.

However, on a more positive note, I planted more plants in the grow bed and they seem to be doing really well.

Far out, the inside tank is in trouble.

i didnt realise the amonia test kit went up that high

I agree - at ammonia of 8, feeding is just not the done thing. They are probably jumping because they would rather live out of the tank . In all seriousness though - need to do soemthing about that - even if it is just putting them into a bigger body of water indoors as a temp measure - eg a bunnings 500 litre tank. Of course the ammonia will still build up to these levels if not being processed, but might give you time to get some biofiltration going.

Yep a 100% water change wouldn't go astray...

No wonder they're jumping.... third degree chemical burns ...

Wow! 8?!

Can you get some starter culture from someone with a aquarium (maybe even a marine aquarium?) or an AP system? You could add either
1) a few ml of slime from a sponge-type aquarium filter,
2) a handful of gravel from an undergravel aquarium filter or the "dirt" sucked up during a cleaning, or
3) a liter or so of really dirty gravel from the water inflow of a cycled AP system

You will change your cycling time from weeks to days, likely saving the fish. Financially, it would be worth hours of driving, just to save the investment you've already put into the fish.

Put the starter culture at the inflow to the growbeds, right AFTER a 100% water change.

Good luck!

fishgirl,

Seems to be a lot of conflicting info - can you outline if you have any filtration on the aquariums (i.e. gravel or other?). I'm guessing you don't have any? If so it would be better for you to put all your fish in the large tank outside (keep the large ones separate from the little'ns as you've done) - it has one growbed attached, yes?

You said the outside tank was uncovered? That is probably why the fish are hiding - put some shade cloth over it and they will probably be a little happier. This may drop the temperature a little - what is the temperature of the outside (large) tank?

Just leave the fish for a few days - no food, no disturbances - they will be stressed, they need to have some calm... Do water tests am and pm and perhaps put them here - others will then be able to help based on the test results.

Do you have any salt in the outside tank? If so how much? If not find a source of pool salt - a 20kg bag for me at BigW only cost $6. If you transfer fish to the outside tank, dissolve and add about 3.5kgs of salt to the 3,500ltr tank (it actually has that much water in it, yes?) - this will give you 1ppt of salt which may help your fish get through the trauma.

Hi Mylesau,
I have put all the fingerlings in the big tank outside. The frishy ones from inside (now outside)are still frisky and when I dribbled a few food granules in, went berserk. The beer fermenter biofilter cleared up the water pretty quickly. My husband has now hooked up the second grow bed, and it has cleared up even more. Now twice the amount of returned water is triggering the return pump, returning the oxygenated air to the main tank. I have yet to plant it. I guess it will take a while for the bacteria to seed throughout the bed.

The fingerlings hide all day in some shelters I put in for them. The big barra with the odd mouth is going on the plate tonight.

I have extra airstones and air pumps to maximise the oxygen for them. they all seem much happier. The little ones show interest in food crumbles but the big ones havent seemed to notice the floating pellets. I think they are more active at night though. I tried them with some crumbles, but they dont seem that interested.

I will go and test the ammonia etc now.

iyou can work wonders with a hot glue gun : essential tool, cheap and easy to work with

frank