Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

ive had problems with fish deaths too. i havent seen anyone ask you about aeration, hows your air supply?

i have some foam that was meant for roofing insulation, i wonder if theres any anti-fire chemicals on it that might explain the odd fish kills ive been getting.

Definately sounds like nitrite poisoning.

I haven't done any tests after I put the salt in, but I did them before and the results were:

PH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: .25
Nitrate: 40

Would a Nitrite of .25 cause an issue? I test fairly regular and its never above that.

I can run through the tests again tonight to see if anything has changed.

So the salt only seemed to help for a couple days and then we were back to more fish deaths.

At this point I only have 1 fish left in this bin and it will be gone in a couple days as well. I still don't know what killed them. Before I add more fish into there any suggestions on what I should do to the system so hopefully whatever was there before doesn't kill the next batch?

I am hoping to be able to keep the plants that are currently in there going, I would really like to not have to bleach the whole thing or re-wash the gravel unless I have to. I was thinking about flushing all the water out of the system, doing a full water change, running it for a few days and then doing another water change, wash out the whole fish tank, and then salt and add some cheap goldfish in.

I would think my plants would survive that, the bacteria would get cut back having to go a couple days with no fish nutrients, but I would bet it would spring back. Also I have the other part of my system that I could initiate it with since it is perfectly healthy.

Does that sound like it could help? If I killed off another batch of fish, I guess I would be stuck with bleaching the system and starting over with it.

Hi Marcus,

noticed that you have some timber in your growbeds, these are for keeping the grow media out of the syphon I assume. Are the two pieces of timber glued or nailed together? If glued, what sort of glue ?

Also what sort of timber ? If your not sure of it's origin then it may be wise to remove it. the reason I ask is it may have been treated before you got it.

just a thought,

Himzo.

Nope not treated at all, my dad has a lumber mill and it is some cherry wood from there, it is nailed together, just three nails if I remember correctly.

Also something to note, I have two almost identical systems, I treat them as one, but they are physically separate, only one is having issues. I would think if the wood was an issue I would see it show up in the other system as an issue as well.

Is it possible the Koi could have had something from the pet store I got them from? I have had them for over two months now I am pretty sure so I would have thought anything from there would have worked through the system by now. That is probably the biggest difference between the two systems is I bought the fish from different batches, but that was months ago, they all get the same feed, have the same pumps, same hardware, pretty much the same everything.

So the last of the fish died in this tank, still don't know what caused it. However I am in the process of getting it ready for the next batch of fish and had a quick question.

At the local fish store they suggested putting in some API Melafix that is supposed to cure alot of issues with fish, they didn't think it would have any issues with the bacteria in the system for converting the ammonia to nitrate. Any suggestions on if I should add that into the system?

Also just some background info on what I am doing to hopefully help flush the system, I drained all the water, then manually flushed both beds with fresh water and then dumped all the water, I then switched fish tanks with a brand new one with all new water. All the equipment (pump, air stone & line, plus all supply lines) were cleaned in a bleach solution and then washed pretty well before adding it to the new tank. I am also going to be salting the system before adding the fish.

Anything else I should try doing?

Hmm, perplexing that its only in 1 tank...sure there is nothing at all different?

Looks like your doing all the right stuff anyway.

It is perplexing, but I am not to worried about it now, just want to get the next batch in.

Do you guys think it would be ok to add the API melafix in before I put in the fish? Or is that something I should stay away from for the plants sake?

Hi Marcus, make sure you flush your system - to remove any bleach residues!

Re Styrene Foam - the question came up some time ago......

When I first started my duckpond I used styrenefoam rafts with plants in it (I had no GB) after a few days the ducks ate the plants and then the styrenefoam rafts and I eventually removed the styrene rafts. No ill effects as far as the ducks were concerned. Yeah..and somebody asked if the eggs were floating....no, definitely not

Also, our chooks will eat styrene as a matter af fact...they love it! As above....no ill effects...whatever.