Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello everyone!! Wondering if anyone has seen this before...

I recently setup a new aquaponics system stocked with 20 barramundi fingerlings. Purchased fish about 4 days ago and floated them for an hour to adjust before releasig them into my 1000L tank. About 5 or 6 haven't adjusted well and have been lying on their side on the bottom of the tank. When another healthly barra swims by and stirs them up they swim a bit wobbly and then fall again to one side and just remains still on the bottom. Bought a water test kit and today as follows:

pH = 8.1
NH3 - 0.2
Nitrite/Nitrate = 0
Temp = 16C

Not sure if I should change water, buy salt, remove sick ones from the tank, or just leave them alone. Tried feeding once or twice but none are eating so stopped feeding and all food has been removed from the tank. Also most are lying on their sides in a group together behind the pump.

Sad to say... they're not sleeping... they're either dead, or dying... immediately remove them to an aquarium and raise the temperature to 20 degrees... salt to 1ppt...

Then raise the temperature to 24 degrees over the next day...

With luck... you may save a few...

Barra... Temp 16degC...

I believe you are located in Perth, WA?? If so, you have probably been lucky coz this week's temperature has been rather hot. But it will be cooler this weekend... possibly too cold for barra.

Do as Rupe has suggested, I think air temperature might drop close to 10degC tonight... water temperatures are usually a few degrees lower... so move them NOW...

Thanks for the advice.

I'll bring them inside and salt for the next week or so till the tank warms up to +20C. Wanted to start up my new system but best to wait then having dead fish

Few things to know if you don't already know...

You will need to put airstones in the water or aquarium you are housing the barra in indoors.

You will need to check ammonia levels pretty often... with a pH of 8.1 (assuming your indoor tank is the same ph) at 20degC temperature, ammonia is toxic at about 0.53. I have attached a chart, which was given to me, courtesy of Rupe.
As you can see, the higher the Ph and temperatures, ammonia gets more toxic... You will need to do water changes if ammonia builds up to the unsafe level.

Barra will eat other fishes, so if you are putting them in your existing aquarium, you might want to make certain that the fishes in the aquarium are bigger than the barra.

If you still wish to continue cycling your AP outside, consider using hummonia... Look up fishless cycling...

Had a question bout early days system cycling and starting up.

Its been about 3 weeks since I've started my system and today I have the following water readings:

Ph = 8.0
NH3 = 0.0
Nitrate = 4.0
Nitrite= 0.50

Is this normal? Do I need more fish to increase my ammonia levels or should I give it more time? Last week my NH3 levles were 0.4. My fingerling barra (11 survived) only just started eating small amounts of food about 4 days ago and looking alot healthier.

any advice ? thanks

Steady as she goes... keep your feed to that level for another week.. then slowly increrase it...

I doubt you're fully cycled yet...

You're the second person today that's said they have a new system... and Barra...

Thought nobody over that way could get any??

did the person selling you the barra mention that they are a warm water fish ie, keep them at 16 and they will eventually die

Not much advice on temp when I bought them but its something that i should have known before buying them. Being that the excellent Backyard Aquaponics team gave me a book on fish which I should have read before buying fish saying - Barra min 15C.

Surprisingly the water temperatures went as low as 11C one morning when I checked and yet 11 out of 20 have survived. Fingers crossed we don't get another cold spell, water temps now around 17C. I was going to bring them inside but I didn't have a proper tank to keep them in for a few weeks.

I've never had fish before so learning as i go! Such good fun having a fish in the backyard

Hi Barrabear
How are the barra going? Are they still alive? What are your temperatures reaching? I am in Perth and am getting barra on Thursday. Hopefully it will be warm enough.

if your desperate could you not rig up a temporary heating loop using your existing pump and a coil of polly pipe on the ground or roof?

hi fishrcool,

did you get your barra?....I'd say your fine but I just noticed temps might go down to 11C tonight and tomorrow night which was around the temps when I made the transfer and lost almost half within a few days. If you could wait to transfer them on Monday looks like temps will be climbing.

Once they settle in after about 5 days your in the clear as one morning water temps were 11C but since they have been in the tank for 10-15 days they were ok.

i am just new to this though and if i am off the mark 'the legends' on here are probably better advice.

goood luck ... BB

Don't know Delgrade. How many degrees higher would you get from poly pipe? But if the probably is with the night temperatures, poly pipe won't help at night...right?

The poly pipe won't do anything at night nor will it do anything during the day unless it is pumped up and back, slowly. Hot water rises. If you put the poly on ground level and get all the air out you should be able to get it to automatically cycle from, and back to your fish tank.

Heating the water during the day will mean the water temp over night won't go as low. To avoid loosing as much temp overnight, cut half of your pumping cycles out during the colder part of the night. This may have an adverse affect on your ammo and nitrite levels.

And WTBH are you getting your Barra from, and at what price??

I got 70 barra on Thursday. I have found a small difference in temperature by adding a coil of black pipe. The pipe fills up when the grow bed fill and then it drains to the sump. Each hour the volumn of water in the pipe is heated and returned to the sump. The water is hot - about bath temperature when it first enters the sump. Yesterday the water temp went from 17degrees in the morning (9degree air temp over night) to 20 degrees by lunch time. Yesterday at lunch time I added two 500w heaters to the fish tank. The temperature by night was 23degrees. The temperature this morning was 20 degrees ( I turned the black pipe off over night but still pumped through the grow beds every hour). The barra are so much happier with the warmer temp. At 17degree they were not moving and looked sick....by 20degrees they were swimming around happily. I really did not want to get barra so early but it is just so hard to source them. I got my barra from Freo tafe. They were supposed to be 200grams but ended up being 330grams on average. Hopefully next season barra will be easier to come by and a bit smaller.