Scott's system

scottt

OK, the theory was !
Whilst waiting for summer temps to heat my system for Barra (current temp 18 )
-Isolate one tank
-Insulate and heat to 25 degrees
-Provide filtration with 20 Liters of bio balls, which had been, "cycled" in my sump.
-Add Barra........ :flower:

In practice...
- Add Fifty, 120mm Barra fingerlings
- After one day... Test for Ammonia
- Freak out at dark green results (2-4) :hsm:

It would appear the bio balls, conditioned at lower temp are not up to the job....

The dodgy Solution
- Have been doing 50% water changes twice a day :!:

The process goes like this
1) Heat 250L of AP water in Wheelie bin
2) Pump 250L of water out of Barra tank into AP
3) Pump heated water into Barra tank
4) Repeat....

Observations
- No morts yet..., 4 days and counting......
- These little dudes love eat.
- Hard not to fed 'em when your watching the ammonia. :oops:

- Interesting how their "stress stripe" goes up and down with water changes

- If you want to grow tropical fish, in a temperate region, be prepared to go the hard yards

- These guys are gonna make me broke :twisted:

RupertofOZ

Mate... designer bins and bin covers..... jezz, got bling my system up before I post anymore pics... :lol:

monya

I love how the theory of climate appropriate species is being tested

Have fun with em, and if you can keep the temps up and ammonia down, happy days :drunken:

himzol

I think the dog wants it's mattress back :lol:

steem

hey scott, can you use water from your main system and heat that?
Saves water, lets the plants use the nutes, and will give the silvers some nice pre-warmed water to swim around in....not sure if you want to stuff around with the main system though.

scottt

Looks like I have the Ammonia under control with my water change regime.
The fish appear to eat as much as I'll give em.

So, how much should I feed them?
Can they eat too much?

And yes, the dog does want her mattress back!

scottt

Yep Steem.
All the water comes from, and go's to, the main AP system

steem

hah, should have read properly. nice quick work setting that up!
hsm fixes are supposed to look like they were slapped together in a blind panic though scott...show some respect for the rules please

scottt

Trap for new(ish) players
PH in main system has been rock solid for months at 7.2 - all good.

(With 50 large trout and 50 small SP's, buffered with shell grit)

Got a bit complacent with the water tests over time.

Last 6 weeks has seen all the trout make their way to the table. Leaving only the small SP's and a few goldies.

Plants not going so well, so I got off my bum and tested the water.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
pH 8.4

I'm assuming the reduction in fish load resulted in less nitrification.
With less bacteria activity to reduce pH, calcium carbonate in shell grit and some of my gravel caused the pH to rise.!

So I,
-Removed the shell grit
-added two capfuls of phosphoric acid.
-added some "humonia"
-gave myself a kick up the backside, for forgetting the basic's. :oops:

P.S Barra in heated isolated tank are doing fine, any tips on how much to feed them?

scottt

I moved my SP's today, little guys are looking healthy, but the haven't grown much!

To be fair, I reckon they did well to get through winter.

However I think the Barra have grown more in 1 week than the silvers have in 6 months!

Mind you, heating the Barra tanks does make the electricity meter spin fast.

scottt

Yay, we have warm weather

I've spent the last month, heating and manually pumping water, to and from the main system.
Today, I finally opened the valves and let the AP water flow......
Barra are going well, no losses that I am aware of.
I reckon they are now about 160mm