Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Bloody hell - HSM

I don't know what happens - this is exactly what happened last year too - (viewtopic.php?p=185164#p185164)

Basically the fish are dying right in front of me. They go berko at the top of the water, jumping out or swimming around like mad, and then they just go "listless". I've pulled 10 out, 5 dead, the other 5 not so great. The rest of the fish.... could go either way at this point.

The thing is my water params look fine - pH 6.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 80 - the water is a cool 15 degrees, the pumps and everything are on, the water is clear.

I have changed 20% of the water, added some shellgrit (I thought it might be water hardness?!), have isolated the beds and am redirecting the pump back into the water. PLENTY of air and circulation happening. I've also added about 1ppt more salt (bringing it up to about 2ppt)

The two things that i can think of - I noticed there was some uneaten food in the growbed, and I also cleaned out a growbed (pulled out all the tommies, etc).

Hrrm. Just reading last years post - I added ecorose before this incident too. I wonder if they can get "Potassium poisoning" or something odd like that. This is so frustrating!

Going to go out and clean out the pipes and have a smell. Good on me for documenting my thoughts last year (viewtopic.php?p=185237#p185237).

What the?
The day after Anzac Day Gemmell, one year to the day. doom doom That is wierd. Hope you get it sorted.

Just a thought on anzac day they dont fire a 21 gun solute [ you know shock and all that]
Or spray mozzies for the dawn service

Last time was the 28th rather than the 26th - I didn't pick up on how close those 2 dates were though... could be a sudden drop in temperatures - that we get at this time of year. No sprays or cannons near me either. More likely it's a "user error" - I probably always feed too much until I get a big death toll and then scale back a bit.

Death toll sitting at 6, but fish are still pretty freaked. Doesn't help that the only way I can see them is with a big bright torch. They go a bit burko when I come looking. I've put the hood down, and I'm going to leave it running all night. The "distribution pipes" in the growbeds are disconnected so it's just pouring out through a T piece. They smelled "organic" to me this year though, rather than bad. I also gave everything a flush.

Cross your fingers for me!

You say you added EcoRose.... how much, when, and what was your pH before you added it???

About a tablespoon. It wasn't much, it didn't bounce pH.

No deaths overnight, but they didn't look healthy. The water had that "protein" buildup" look to it. Changed a bit more water.

Here's some theories:

* A sudden drop in temperature (it's freakin' cold now)
* Leaves shed from nearby trees (particularly a large ornamental plum) get into the growbeds and rot
* I pulled out lots of veg, but left a lot of roots which are now rotting. I would probably have pulled them out at the same time last year too.

It's really touch and go. The system is cycling all day today whilst I'm at work. There's been 9 deaths so far, but I've got about 10 in a 500L tank which are looking terrible.

I've "mobilised" a worm cleanup army. I probably should have put more in, but hopefully they'll do something.

The problem is that if it IS something rotting in the beds, then cycling isn't going to help. Damnit, I should have turned the cleared bed off and left it all going through the filled one. Damn, too late now.

Just a thought regarding fish deaths is the fish food you are using fresh?

It is frustrating Gemmell, I am having same problem except I have lost around 30, a few everyday, can't work it out, am leaning to water poisoned by uneaten food or a dead yabbie or two that haven't surfaced, but water doesn't smell

The one thing I haven't done which I did last year is cleaned out the pump. Last year I had to pull the pump out because there were trout sucked up all against it and in it. Disgusting.



Yep. The guy brought the food when he brought the fish.

The worst bit is being stuck at work instead of at home tending to the fish

Another 9ish this arvo. I count 17 total.

12 this morn.

I must have changed a LOT of water by now.

I put 10 in the sump of my old system (the tank has ~100 SP in it), and they seemed to recover. So it's something in the water. However I've done plenty of water changes over the past couple of days but it doesn't seem to make any difference what so ever.

There arent any plants that might produce a toxic substance in the GB? I cant imagine what else might be causing this sort of mortality with continued waterchanges.

good luck..

Yeh, I'm thinking much the same. But I don't think it's a particular plants roots. I don't think it's something falling from a tree, I'm leaning more towards something like rotting roots in the beds. Though I have heard that spring onions etc can do interesting things to soil (was it a fungicide?!).

I did have another thought though - what kind of influence does the moon have for trout? Because mine are sitting in my carport with blockout around them, so they get no moon, no direct sun. Maybe after a month or so of no moon they all freak out and think they're in a cave?!

Another thought was that maybe this is a reaction to being overstocked. After a month of 300 fish in 3000L they freak out and die.

GF noticed a tail sticking out of my overflow. I stuck a hose down the other end and SIX dead trout came out. Thinking that this might have been the cause of all my woes I changed out half the water (and blocked off the entry to the overflow).

This morning. Still dying. I'm almost out of ideas.

I changed the pump this morning (been meaning to do that anyway) and pulled out the leek... I'm clutching at straws here. Death toll is about 40 at the moment. Every time I close my eyes I see floaters.

The reason I changed my pump: It's 250W and I don't need one that big. It's an ebarra. When the fish sink, they get all sucked into the pump and go all manky. So even if they're not quite dead when they're floating, they get all sucked by the pump and die that way. So now I have a 4500L one. Not quite the same flow rates, but it uses almost 1/4 the power.

Any fish I put in my 500L sump for my old system recover. Need more systems.

What about near complete water change...perhaps something poisoness to the fish got in. Is it open that stuff from trees could drop in? Could someone have poored something in there?

I feel for you - this has got to be painful!
Mark