Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looks great.
Wish i could see my fish like that.
I put my next lot of seedlings in with most of the dirt still on them.
See how that goes!
If I see any pavers about for free I'll let you know. That pond is great!
Al

MY FISH ARE DYING???

I have no idea why but we have lost one last night and just checked now and there is another one on its side.

My PH is about 7.3
Nitrite is 0

the fish look great swimming around happy then a few hours later they are trying to breathe and not swimming.
any ideas what I can do?

pump is on 30mins then off 30mins
if that makes any difference

Thats ok just beeing an ar;'ole every body reckons i am so may as well be one

Can you run the pump continuously to provide aeration or do you have a air pump you could use.

thanks for that
We will go get an air pump now and try that.
fingers crossed

Yep, very probably not enough oxygen returning from your growbed to the pond...

Given the shallowness of your pond... and the fact that it is lined with black plastic...

I think it will present problems in summer... purely from heat gain... needs to be shaded...

Temperature also has a marked effect on oxygen saturation (and ammonia toxicity, when combined with pH).......

I'd suggest that you pump continuously... and have an airstone operating at all times...

If your pump has lots of spare capacity... you could "tee" off and pump some water to a "waterfall" into the pond... this would help both oxygenate and cool it (to some extent)...

Bugger!

All is not lost Al.... you've got about 2000L in the pond... you'll just need to keep turning it over... at least once/hr IMO.... and run some airstones.... like I said a "waterfall" might help as well...

ok we got a fountain pump, that will run all the time
the lady at the shop said it will push the air under the water as the fountain runs.

I will get an airstone tomorrow and add that as well as one of the parts for the fountain as a little contector of the side which I think is for one of them.

As for shade we have now put up two large 5mt x5mt shade sails over the pond and grow bed now, so lot cooler under there.

hope this is what the problem is, and that we have it fixed now.

Shade will help keep the water "cooler" during the heat of summer Al... but more particularly, excluding the direct sunlight will prevent the algael bloom that otherwise would inevitably occur...

Hopefully you have your aeration issues sorted out and your fish are doing better.

Back to the pond edging to keep sad/debris from falling into the pond. That is a really good idea but even more important, you need something to keep your fish from jumping out of your pond. Looks to me like the water comes right up to the top edge in places. At some point a fish will see a bug or something it wants and jump for it and find itself over the edge or a fish might be getting chased by another fish and jump to escape, and find itself well away and all sandy. Some sort of barrier around the top edge is definitely a good idea. You might also want to make sure a heavy rain won't was runoff and dirt into your pond.

Perhaps you could kill all birds with the one stone... build a surround to keep rainwater out, fish in... and incorporate supports for a shade structure....

Rupert this is Tan and Steves thread not Mine (Al) Cheers.

Tan and Steve, I hope you get this sorted quickly. Loosing fish sux.
Good luck with it.

How big are you r fish and where did you get em?

Arrgh, before you were just an ar;'ole! Now you're a conformist ar;'ole!!!!!