Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

up it next feed, see how much they want to eat.
...to gauge the right amount .

I think fishrcool is asking how quickly to increase feed without causing major Ammonia spikes ,, not how much the fish will eat but rather how much the bacteria can handle.
2 heaped tablesppoons gave a small nitrite spike ,, nop big deal ,, I'd be trying 4 table spoons ( 2 morning 2 nafternoon) , see how the bacteria handle it. 0.25 nitrite is nothing to worry about

thanks Chappo. That is exactly what I am asking. I have worked out that I need to feed the fish approximately 1 1/4 Cups of food a day. I know that I have to increase the amount 'gradually'.....but exactly what does 'gradually' mean. Today I fed them 4 Tablespoons (around 1/2 Cup). How much should I feed them tomorrow??? Keep it the same for a few days....water test and if my ammonia levels are under 1 and nitrite under 1 then give them an extra tablespoon...Or just increase by a tablespoon a day???? I am assuming that if my nitrite and ammonia levels get over 1 then I should decrease the food until the levels drop again... or do I just keep the level of feeding the same until the levels drop????

Do I sound confused???

How is your plant growth?
Good for filtering and takeup of nitrate?
How many 'casts' of food do you do?
I feed about 1 1/2 cups in the morning and
that is about 10 'casts' (handfuls)

Under normal conditions we need to increase the feed ration by a food ration % of weight
each day, as this is what the fish are growing at each day and therefor require more food.
Now I know that did not sound right but does it make any sense?

Can someone else reword? Please

sorry creative1 you have lost me
My plants have taken off. Todays test results were
ammonia - .25
nitrite - .25
nitrate - 5
pH 7.8
I fed the fish four times yesterday. A tablespoon at a time. I tend to sprinkle the whole amount into the fish tank at a time. I think I will increase by another tablespoon tomorrow and see what happens. I have taken the cover off the fish tank so I can have floating rafts of lettuce. I hope the fish tank doesn't go green. When cycling the water was always extremely clear (like out of the tap). It never went murky. I hope that doesn't change now.

Yeh no doubt
Hehe smashed jaffa soz

Apparently the nitrite>nitrate bacteria are the weak link since they have such a slow doubling rate....days rather than hours or minutes for some other bacteria. Still, I would think you could increase by 25% to 50% per day, but keep testing!

thanks Hydrophilia, I'll give that a go and see what happens. Things are looking good so far.

Well it had to happen, I have had my first death . I found a fish dead at the bottom of the tank. It looked good except it had a hole near its gill. when I lifted it out of the tank a lot of 'goo' ran out of the hole. I added four scoops of iron to the sump tank yesterday and sprayed the vegies with seasol. I don't think that contributed to the death. I don't think I have anything in the tank that would be sharp enough to cause damage. Would another fish have caused the damage?
My test results are
ammonia - .25 - .5
nitrite .25
nitrate????? forgot to test
pH 7.8
I have been slowly building up my feed levels. I have taken the cover off the tank and that has resulted in the tank sides growing algae.....so I can't see into the water anymore. The fish are really hard to spot! I found uneaten food when I scooped the fish out with a net. I will cut down on my feeding rate. The fish had grown....48grams.

The only other thing that has changed is that I have brought larger fish food. I mixed it in with the last few spoons of smaller pellets.???? Could that be a contributing factor?

Oh well, hopefully it was a once off and I wont find more deaths tomorrow.

I think something is wrong with all of the fish. they are not hungry at all. My water tests today
am .5
rite .25
rate - between 5 and 10
ph - between 7 - 7.2
I don't know why my ph has dropped so quickly. It has always sat on around 8. Would the seasol or the addition of iron have changed the pH??? Should I be doing anything??? I wont feed them this morning and see how they are hungry this afternoon. Unfortunately because the tank walls have darkened I can't see the fish swimming around at all. Hopefully there are no dead ones on the bottom.

What's your water temp... and weather conditions??

I am not sure what my water temp is but it is a beautiful sunny day. It was cold last night. Looking back over my test results my ammonia has been sitting on 0.25 - 0.5 for the last three weeks as I have been increasing my feed levels. Maybe I need to reduce my feed levels again. I got up to feeding them 8 tablespoons a day - around 1 cup.

Odd behavior can be due to weather changes. Cross fingers.

I worry that it may be due to some pathogen that killed the first trout and is now going after the others. The change in ph also may indicate some rotting food in the system. I would do partial water changes and reduce feed (in hopes that it will reduce toxics and dilute pathogens), but others here are far more expert on trout....

I don't add anything other than fishfood.
and won't

I've noticed that adding Iron to my system can lower the pH a bit in my system. (My system is heavily buffered with shells as aprox 40% of my growbed media so my pH is well buffered to 7.6 normally. My top up water tends to draw it up close to 8 if I have to add a lot and I've seen a pH as low as 7.4 when I was feeding too heavily and added lots of iron.)