Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

No, I set up my system (rather permanently) as Chift Pist before it was commonplace. In fact before it was discussed lots on the forum.

My sump feeds the GBs, the GBs feed the FT and the FT overflows into the SUMP.
This means that the pumps have to pass solids to GB.
However due to dynamics, in the eddies, up to 10mm of silt can accumulate.



No
2 Years ago I lost my first ever batch of silvers due to gross overfeeding, as I did not instruct my babysitter on how to feed them in enough detail.

A general invitation goes out to anybody in Melbourne who might like to add their experience to Milne's when he drops over to my place tomorrow morning to help me figure a better way to do things.

Ah.. OK, I'm with you now... explains the sump build up..

And yes.. I remember the "incorrect feeding details" saga now... must have been thinking of someone else...

Good luck on the weekend Kuda

Thanks Rupe

0 floaters since 5 O'Clock, without daylight I cannot hope to see sinkers

So, I'm a lazy bugger Kuda.... are you pumping continuously to your beds... hence overflowing to your sump continuously...

OAre you filling your beds on a timer or float valve from the sump... and still cascading from one bed to another before returning to the fish tank??

2 beds are cascaded siphons on continuous flow.
4 new beds are on timed slow drain 30/90

Hummm.. so how long does it take to trunover your tank volume Kuda?

I'm wondering if you inflow to the fish tank is too slow for the Chift Pist to lift enough of the solids into the sump... and the flow so slow that a lot of the solids are settling out into the sump...

And that the slow fill... slow tank volume turnover is either lacking oxygenation or the low solids removal is depleteing oxygen...

I fear you are correct on many counts.
I will discuss with Milne, then be better able to discuss on the forum.
Until tomorrow - Let's hope he's not too scathing

The two beds on continuous flow Kuda...does this imply you running a second pump...

And the 4 beds on the timer... can you up them to 15/45...?

KP,

Sorry to hear about your loss of fishes. Had a similar episode myself about 3 weeks ago. I believe I lost at least half of my 40 rainbows I put into the tank. Stop counting after a while , so not really sure of the accurate count.

And yes, I believe my problem was uneaten food. Tank water must have been greenish cloudy to start with, and because I come home after dark, kept feeding and only found out that tank water have gone greenish on the weekend. Next day, it was brownish and shit happened the following day.

Over the period on "the road to recovery", I left the tank water low enough to watch for the fishes behaviour and to find any more sinkers. So far so good and the tank is getting clearer by the day.

Hope you get pass your episode soon.

, been there few times already but you've always managed to be at work,

sorry to hear about your HSM, just hope you'll get it sorted out tomorrow (on paper),
let me know for when you will organised the BBQ and I will bring gumboots, spades and any other tools needed.

Thanks Steve, We'll see what happens.

Yes Rupe I have 2 pumps.
And no I can't up them to 15/45.
I went to some pains to try and get them to fill in 15.
I may be able to shorten the drain time but that will increase the fill time.

Well I could, but pumps get expensive when referring to that volume.
They were going to be siphon, but I couldn't get it going due to low flow and bad design

News is: No floaters this morning.
There may be sinkers, I'll be turning off the air and looking properly once F&F gets here

Excellent - this is the most frustrating thing about losing fish which look healthy, the problem just goes away, and you've only got a hunch as to what the actual problem was.

Here's another idea - if you suspect you have some food getting through to the sump, or even just staying in the tank - why not use another animal which has evolved for that niche. What I'm saying is, if you have food at the bottom of the main tank, put some catfish in, they'll clean up anything that makes it to the bottom. If it's getting into the sump, throw a few yabbies in - they should clean up and don't mind the dark (I think).