Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep ... 1ppt for nitrites...

ok so 1ppt for nitrites - is there any advantage in going higher to try to prevent diseases e.g. ich?
what is the ammonia level I should look at starting to do water changes (after i have the fish in)?
FYI the barra i am looking at are 70 - 80mm and planning on 40 - 50
Thanks

If you're getting fingerlings in... especially as they're Barra... then you might as well salt to 3ppt... as a precaution against Ich, stress from translocation etc...

Barra will happily tolerate to 6ppt and beyond... but your veges wont... they should be alright at 3ppt though....

so for 3ppt in 1500 litres is that 4.5 kgs salt?
at what level should i start panicking re ammonia?
thanks

Depends on your pH and water temp....

If you start to get a slight ammonia reading, just slowly change some water out. Dont do big changes all at once. I have had great results just leaving a garden hose on trickle, running into the tank.

Yes, 4.5kg of salt.

so added 53barra this morning average 85mm. all hiding down bottom especially when they see me Will see if they are interested in a little food tomorrow.

Starve them until the day after....

already lost 2 this morning dopey barra swam into growbeds. Looked healthy apart from being dead down to 51
was reading 0 Amm and 0 Nitrite so ground a pellet already sorry Rupert fish didn't seem interested - still huddling.
I put a small amount of flyscreen over cutouts in venturi to stop any more coming through
Planted out a bath with assorted seedlings yesterday. Seeds are starting to come up in another bath today (beans, tomato, spinach?)
Photos to follow if i get to it

have you got any gutter guard? try that over the outlet

don't have any (the flyscreen is the only thing i have to hand at the moment) but was thinking the holes in gutter guard might me to big. Will check it out next time at B

Flyscreen WILL block up resulting in water not being in tank any more

The plastic mesh bags that oranges come in is a good sized mesh, lets the poo and other bits and pieces out and keeps the fish in.

Yes agreed get the flyscreen out asap

yeah i was suss about the flyscreen but it was the only possible thing i had to hand until i go into town in next few days. Barra count is still at 51 - depending how many have eaten each other (haven't lost any more by me though
one bed is planted out with seedlings another bed has got some seeds starting to germinate - beans, tomatos, cucs, and maybe a darwin lettuce I'm trying.
The fish are feeding at mid-water level so i'm guessing a bit with how much to feed them. They attack it quite hard if i haven't fed them for a couple of hours. Bit hard to see in there at the moment as i just added the seasol
One interesting thing was there was no ammonia or nitrite change after adding the 53 barra - guess the 1 bath of seedlings is keeping it under control??
I am trying to get the fish up to take whole 6mm pellets as these were the ones i bought a 25kg bag of
Thanks