Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Had the opportunity to grab 12 30cm barra the other day so grabbed them even though we are not really ready for them. Had a couple of deaths, which I sought of expected, but I was just checking on them and there is another on the way out. Had a good look at him and he has a fair bit of algae on him. I understand the system will go through this stage but is there anyway to speed it up or at least coax the fish through this stage?

Salt and don't be shy using it...I went through a bad transition not long ago, i can't say for sure how much salt i used because it came unweighed, and free, but was way over 20kg's in 3Kl of water, then, slowly bucketed it out and add fresh water ........or you could be looking at a massacre.......

When they get disease, it spreads very quickly to other stressed fish.,...

I have done a few things uncontempory for treating fish in my AP system, but it has helped in all occassions, though Rupert of Oz has always stressed, the alternatives for fish therapy, are not for all.......

I forgot the golden rule of to airate the system to the max

Aglae on the fish?

Some were handled a bit roughly and so some of their natural slime has rubbed off. Have added about a kilo of salt and will check again in the morning.

What's the volume of your fish tank???

I'd suggest salting to 6ppt.... that's 6kg of salt/1000L.... immediately.... then drop it off to 3ppt over several days through water changes...

Barra have a high tolerance to salinity, so it wont harm them... and as Jessy says... you need to get on top of the disease issue before it infects your other fish

You said you were not prepared for them......
Does that mean you just had not finished cycling the system up? You do have grow beds hooked up to the system right? How are your water tests going?

+1 on the salt
++1 on the extra aeration (always good to have extra air in a tank with new fish and when you add extra salt, the aeration is even more important to help keep the DO up. And Aeration can help while getting a system cycled. and and and.)

I wish you luck on saving your fish!

Another thing you can to to help reduce the algae bloom and reduce the length of time the algae pea soup stage lasts is to shade the tank completely. You can't kill algae by just shading it a little, you really need to starve it of light. Once the dead algae starts breaking down in the grow beds, you might not need so much shade over the tank as the decomposing algae seems to have a bit of an anti-algae effect.

Does drying out aglae and adding it back to the system have a similar effect.

Added about 2kg of salt the other day, has cleared it up some and no more deaths. Will also be adding shade this afternoon.


Had grow beds, of sorts, but no, system has not finished cycling. We got the water because it rained, the fish because they were available and the foam boxes and 2 barrels because they were available. Throw in, more rain, car problems, relative visits, 3 kids, annoying pets, other annoying animals which require care and general life it has taken longer to get going than intended, but we are getting there.

See here viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5030