Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi
I'm new to AP, I bought my system from BYAP about 4 weeks ago now I had lots of trouble with my water Temp a few days ago as my barra were floating upside down, I made a water heater from a pump and 60m of poly pipe on my shed roof till I could get a heater sent up from Perth it works really well! My temp is at 26 deg. I also bought a test kit and my levels are through the roof my nitrate is at 80 and my ammonia is at 8.0, my ph is at 7.6 I ve tried lots of things like salt I have drained my tank 60% and top up with rain water for the last few days but nothing is helping. My Barra came from golden Ponds they were freighted up the barra are around 20cm long at there is 22 in the 1000L tank
Can anybody help me before my fish die

Cheers Toota

G'day toota....
What growbeds do you have?

Gday

one 500l growbed

Toota

You have to be patient toota, please read though the information you received with the system, and don't feed your fish.

see, here is the situation with Barra IMPO , Perth over the grow out period for Barra is Just Too Cold. Sure, some people have done it successully, but they have purchased large fish to begin with.

The fact that your ammonia is sky high, and nitrates is a mega number for aquaponics, , leads me to the question C1 was giving......that being how many growing vegie bed's do you have, for filtration ??? the more the merry'r I recon

Well according to the information from BYAP, each growbed can support 20-25 fishes... And sounds like the system was bought as a kit from BYAP, so it is not really likely that there is insufficient filtration...

Are you still feeding the fishes at ammonia levels of 8?? You should stop feeding if you see an ammonia level of 1 and above for a new system...

You did say that you only recently hooked up the heater?? What the temperature of the tank lower before?? At a given pH and a given ammonia level, increasing the temperature, increases the toxicity of ammonia to the fishes...

You get your ammonia down quickly, IMO do some water changes, increase your pump cycle and put in more airstones... oxygen is required for bacteria growth and the conversion of ammonia to nitrite... and of coz the fishes need them too.

Salt your tank to 3ppt (3kg per 1000L) immediately if you have not already done so...

Salting to 1ppt... is all that's needed to mitigate the affects of nitrites...

3ppt and above are generally reserved for disease/parasite treatment...

Hmm... isn't 3ppt for stressed fish as well? barra are upside down... and since it is easier for stressed fish to get disease/parasite, wouldn't 3ppt be justified?? Then again, I might be wrong...

Salt is cheap

1 ppt will aleviate stress... and osmotic imbalances...

But you are correct the "stress" can lead to opportunistic pathogen attack Ivan...

And as OBO says... salt is cheap... so yes, salting to 3ppt certainly wont do any harm...

But it's not going to address the underlying cause of.... water too cold.... and ammonia too high....

It might keep them alive for a while... until the other factors kill them...

Not sure if 26 degrees is the air temperature... or the water temperature...

If it's the tank water temperature... then at pH 7.6 and water 26 degrees... your maximum ammonia tolerance is roughly 0.5.... and you're reading 8...

I would actually lower the water temp to about 20-22.... which would double your ammonia tolerance...

But you need to reduce the ammonia below 1-2... which probably means at least 2 x 30% water changes... and NO FEEDING...

Sorry, but sadly... the transport shock, and ammonia toxicity... has probably damaged your fish and may prove fatal...

Unfortunately lowering the water temp... while it might help prevent pathogen attack, and increase ammonia tolerance... is going to further stress your fish...

But the water changes necessary will probably lower your water temp anyway...

Sounds like your system is still cycling and fish have been introduced to early.
Gentle water changes each day till it stabilizes, 10 % and watch the temp of the water as well as the chlorine levels, ideally have the water sit overnight in a tank to settle.
Plenty of plants in the grow beds as well, get large plants and push them into the gravel at peak of the flood, its easier
Happy fishing

Thanks guys for all the tips, my ammonia levels are pretty much on track now and my water temp is sitting around 22 deg
My Barra are still swimming and are alot more happier than a week ago
Water changes, salt, no feeding, increasing temp and being patient is the key
Cheers Toota

So if we want to grow out Barramundi for a longer time period ie. across winter in Perth - would a greenhouse be sufficient, or do we need to heat the water?

Hi there, your system is only aged 4 weeks I have to ask would it contain enough working bacteria to handle growing fish?

Also the poly pipe on your roof should ideally have its own green house, plastic bag, wrap etc?
this serves to trap the heat that normally rises off, also helps stop some night time heat loss