Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

coles table salt, yes it contained anticaking agent

the tank is holding 3,600 litres of water, and i used 1 kg of salt

1Kg of salt will do nothing you may as well pee in it you need 10 kg of sunray salt to be effective

Lot of us run with 1 to 3ppt of sea salt. 1kg per 1000ltrs = 1ppt. So to get 3ppt in 3600ltrs you need at least 10kg as F&F said.

so the salt should've have hurt it either. do I need to buy and add salt?
I've been flushing tank water into the system, ph would now be 6.85
I've increased the ph (before adding fish) by adding bi-carb of soda. (kitchen stuff)
do i need to increase the ph now.

I think you need to lessen your variables... leave everything alone and let it cycle...

Then you can adjust things.... one thing at a time...

As to the Silvers dying.... how big were they, how were they transported... what was the water temp & pH... at both your end and the supplier end.... and how many did you get??

Hey Alex,

Great to read the posts of people pulling an AP system together from bits and pieces. Has certainly given me a list of things to avoid as a first timer.

Looking forward to reading how it continues.

the silvers were about 45mm long, system seems to be stabilizing. chooks are very happy, i need to see what ph these things like, (i had a small tank with same water but higher ph say 7.3 and one fish seemed to recover in that tank). also i'm aiming at about 2% feed per day by fish weight, is this about right. and how many days can they go without feed.

does 3ppt salt affect plants?

Most plants are fine with 3 ppt of salt. Strawberries are kinda sensitive though and might not like the salt.

Fingerlings should be feed three to four times a day... a total ration of about 5% of their body weight...

They can probably go several days without feed, especially if there is some algae or bio-film build up on the tank walls for them to graze on...

But at that size... and with winter approaching.... I'd be feeding them every day....

fish are finally surviving, although the fish in the kid sized tank seemed to die (i suspect from temperature fluctuation)
pH is steady about 6.9, ammonia is not showing yet (well maybe just a bit, but very low reading)
oh yeah, i had an approx. 20% survival rate.

wow i wold not be happy at that survival rate. It is really troublesome getting small fish at the start of winter. They are really susceptible to dying(from what I don't know). The best bet is to get silers or jades as early in summer as you can and feed them up. Once winter comes thay are big enough to survive the winter no trouble.
Best wishes, Nick

water temp is about 25degrees
quite nice actually

pH went to about 6.8 (flushing with more tank water after i found a 2 dead fish over a couple of days), i added 1 teaspoon of bicarb of soda,
next morning 3 more dead fish? ph maybe up by 0.2 (maybe, maybe less maybe more I should use 2 vials so I can compare against the last, not just my reading against the chart)

just took receipt of a nice little Sedra pondmaster pump today, its little and is rated at 20W,
must be about time for another go at aquaponics

today, got the system to start moving water, it will be a constant flow, with water falling from the fish tank to the growbed, then being pumped up to the growbed.
interestingly, the pump needed a riser just before to allow it work properly, before when it was just in-line it would work for 15 seconds then not have the head required, with a riser inserted in the line before it, it now works a treat.