Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

erm let you know tomorrow morning, kinda late tonight. I only checked what Rupe asked coz that's what I do nowadays. Only check what I think might be wrong... I guess I'll check everything tomorrow - Am, Nitrite, Nitrate, temps and pH.
I hope the Am is still at 1ppm!

Zeolite is great for removing some ammonia quickly if it gets out of control.

yes, I'm using zeolite and it works .. to some extent...

today's results:

Goldfish system (230L tank with 16 small/medium fish):
< 1ppm Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 0 Nitrate, 12 deg C and the pH is still at 7.6

Rainbow system (700L tank with 30 20cm fingerlings):
> 1ppm Ammonia, almost 0.25ppm Nitrite, almost 5ppm Nitrate, still 9 deg C and a definite pH of 7.4

seems to be cycling at last!! but I don't like the look of ammonia, I hope it comes down soon.
if it gets past 2ppm I'm in trouble! hoping it's just the spike and will be coming down soon. Considering it's the middle of winter.....

weird thing is yesterday the ammonia with the goldies was higher than the Trout's ammonia and now it's the other way around with the trout also getting some nitrite and nitrate results. WTF

Actually Jens... if you refer to the ammonia chart... at your pH and water temp... toxicity wont be a problem unless it exceeds 4+...

Not that I'm advocating inaction if ammo values exceed 1-2....

As to the use of zeolite... and other additives...I feel the need for another seperate post...

why?? they're good for a short time. the only argument I can think of is whether they're an expensive way of fixing an ammonia problem that could otherwise have been avoided!!

checked results this morning as well,

Goldfish system (230L tank with 16 small/medium fish):
1-2 ppm Ammonia, 0.25 Nitrite, 5-10 Nitrate and pH at 7.4

Rainbow system (700L tank with 30 20cm fingerlings):
2 ppm Ammonia, solid 0.25 ppm Nitrite, 5-10 ppm Nitrate and pH at 7.6

shucks looks like I'll be doing water change tonight....under all this rain!

found an intensive ammonia chart on pH and temps... very informative!!
http://www.dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/A ... mmonia2ppm

great link thanks!

Or you could consult the simplified (Centigrade) one posted a thousand times here on the forum....

... ehuh?

Ok... Sunday was my day to get the system fixed and moved out of the way of the fence. If the fence contractors are going to fix 'em, they'll need at least 1 metre clearance (groans) ... by then I counted 30 trout.. !

So in between the cold showers that frequently came down throughout the day, I managed to move the trout to another couple of tanks for the day and move things around. it got pretty late in the afternoon and I hadn't moved it much but at least I swapped out 50% of the water. I was still checking it at 8pm that night before I gave it final look and went to my comfort.

Monday, (clears throat)
In the morning, I checked and it wasn't cycling properly so fixed some pipes. moved this and that... in the middle of the rain.. finally I had to stop coz I had to go to work for the afternoon.
I came home to a dark suburb... I mean it was completely black. The only things that shone were the car lights it was scary because it only meant one thing...
I rushed out and looked at the fish... they were fine... so I tried to swap out some water as much as I could because there was no telling how long the black out was.. but I was expecting maybe 3-6 hours like it was in the past.
I went to bed.

Tuesday
I woke up this morning to find that the black out was still going! I got dressed as fast as I woke and ran out to find 13 dead and 1 sort of floating but was breathing, it died later. 16 survived, most of them were listless to start but when I transferred them to that other tank I had on Sunday, it was like they woke up. i put in some sea salt I got from an aquarium shop.

So for this morning I swapped out 50% of the water. I had to do this very fast because I also had work this afternoon! So yeah... it's been one thing after another. I got a oxy-shell - it's supposed to release oxygen slowly I might need a lot of these to even last at all! I also went to a shop to get a battery powered air pump! So there will be one always operating in their tank... no matter the power out... I just replace batteries and tada!

The black out was still going when I left for work so it was a little stressful to leave. but I smsed my sister from work when I knew she'd be home and she sent back to say that the power was back... so no water swap out tonight! thank goodness!
I might do another one tomorrow, though.

Yep, that's the way it goes. The only time I had a power outage was when I was not prepared and the system had not cycled, so it could not have been at a worse time..

That's a bugger Jens... it always happens when you're unprepared...

Everybody needs to put some sort of backup aeration into place... especially with trout...

See the AC/DC air pumps thread Jens...

Sorry to hear about your losses.. but glad all isn't lost...

on Sunday before the swap out:
the Trout tank results were:
pH 7.6, Amm 4ppm, Nitrite 5ppm, and Nitrate 40ppm with temps between 10 C and 17 C
After swapping out, results were:
pH 7.4, Amm 1ppm, Nitrite 1ppm, Nitrate 20ppm with same temps.

Blackout yesterday morning were:
pH 7.2, Amm 2ppm, Nitrite 1ppm, Nitrate 20ppm with same temps. Most of the dead fish were gaping their gills were really messed up.

The trout that are still alive still has weird colouring on their sides and a few of them have sort of pinkish rash around their gills. I'm hoping that the salt will help them get better. I fed them this morning and they only ate as much as they needed. Prolly won't feed them tonight like I would have normally. One thing I forgot to do was weigh the dead ones... ah well.. too upset I guess. But I'm fine. I mean I've seen others get worse results.. I'm lucky I got a little over half still alive.