Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep.... would be nice to have a seperate tank to isolate and treat them... like a 10-20ppt salt dip for an hour... then water change back to 6ppt...and then decontaminate the original tank...

But, there is the suggestion that water changes... improved water quality... can help see them through....especially now that tank temps are 20 or below...

Salt to 6ppt.... water change 50% after a day if possible.... another 50% the day after... and resalt...

Hold at 5-6ppt for a week...

Only other choice is Formalin...

I go Formulin.. ............In a hospital tank to be dumped .....the damage is already done IMHO

True... and given Scotties tank... then there's probably no option anyway... and it'll kill off the pathogens in the water as well

Just remember to aerate like crazy.... and don't add anymore salt if you're going to use Formalin...

The formalin will breakdown in the tank water... but I'd still do a series of water changes over the next few days anyway... then resalt back to at least 3ppt...

explain please about effect on the bio filter Rupert

Yeah... with that amount of Formalin... 4500L tank... it would take a while to circulate the water and dissipate... and it would probably damage or wipe out the growbed bacteria...

Could you isolate the growbeds Scottie and just keep the water turning over back to the tank...

or as patience has it.....recycle...but the catch is that the formulin WORKS ...and fast....faster than anything else ( plus it is casnogenic )

Please understand and do some research into exactly what it is....

In a contaminated system.....which is not yet declared....it wouldn't hurt...probably your best option.....

If you can move all the fish to anouther tank and treat from there...thats even better...then you could drain your main system ...salt heavley...and add what ever..and have anouther go.....

But at the moment..either remove the fish and treat with concentrated salt...or formulin ...bump the water...and try your luck with the remanding fish..

I'm confused. What am I supposed to be doing?

I don't have a hospital tank, & I'm not able to do a water change (unless it rains heavily).

Where do I get Formulin from?

I can probably aerate the FT without running water through the GBs.

Knew you didn't have a spare tank... and doubted you had spare water...

You'll have to treat the fish in situ.... and try and kill off the bacteria in the tank water as well...

I'd go for the formalin... isolate the growbeds... and aerate....

You're already at 3ppt salt... so the only other option would be to up that to at least 6ppt... in which case your plants will suffer anyway...

Try your local vet for Formalin....

Hi all,

I haven't updated my topic for a while, so here goes ...

The 3ppt salting (5 months back) seemed to do the trick. Only a couple sporadic fish deaths since then. I haven't been doing much AP, just enough to keep the system ticking over & waiting for the warmer weather to arrive. It's starting to warm up so I've stopped worrying that the fish might not survive the cold temps during Winter (like they didn't last year) & now I'm actually beginning to believe that I might get to eat my first SP - after 2 years of APing! Still a few more months to grow out though.

Question: will my SP happily coexist with new SP fingerlings? Now that the warmer weather is coming, I am wondering if I should be getting a new batch of SP for the following year? I want to start early to fatten them up as much as possible before Winter, so they have a better chance of surviving the low water temps.

Good to hear from you Scottie... and glad to hear your Silvers are OK and growing...

Shouldn't be a problem adding new/smaller ones in there... give me a yell when you're ready...

Will be taking a few hundred up Wyong way within a few weeks...

Had a HSM this morning!

Found a floater when I was feeding the SP. Inspected it, but couldn't see any obvious problems (not that I really know what to look for).
So I dusted off the water test kit & measured:

Nitrates: 40 (highest I've ever measured since fully cycled, but well within acceptable range)
PH: <= 6.0 (HSM!)
Ammonia: 0.5 (sh*t!)

So I've stopped feeding & put some shell grit in the waterbeds to try & buffer the PH back up. Anything else I should do?

2 questions:

1. How long will it take for the shell grit to buffer the PH back up?
2. Why is ammonia so high? (guessing it's related to low PH??)



Cool! Thanks Rupe, that'll be good timing.

The shell grit will take a while...

Wouldn't hurt your plants to give them a Potassium boost... get some EcoRose from Bunnings or MagnaMart... Potassium BiCarbonate... use cautiously...

Or grab some Calcium Hydroxide (Slaked Lime - brickies use it)... or even Bicarb of Soda...

Same note of caution with the slaked lime... I use a handful in 6000L...

D'oh!


Eco Rose is preferred over Seasol?


Is that the same as garden lime?


Just bought some. Any guidelines on how much to use? I have ~5000L.

Thanks Rupe!

Seasol wont buffer your pH... you need a "Carbonate" or "BiCarbonate" to buffer...

EcoRose is Potassium BiCarbonate...


Yes and no... it's also known as "Hydrated" lime.... Calcium Hydroxide... the hydroxyl ion is a very strong base....

Normal "garden lime"... is more likely to be Calcium Carbonate...


Try a handful... and then test your pH a few hours later... repeat of necessary...

BiCarb of Soda is Sodium BiCrbonate... the BiCarbonate will buffet... the sodium will "salt"...