Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

You should be able to keep feeding and growing your Barra with water temps of 20-22.... even if slower...

Fodder, Mate, the plants need sunshine to photosynthesize....90 % shade IMHO is starving seeds and plant life of sunshine and life

Just a suggestion...but relocate it to the main fish tank.

Ok, It looks like summer has gone.
I will pull down the shade sale this weekend.

Was looking that that plant and it had little yellow buds on it.
Hope i can save it.

CH

Got got an email from the hatchery saying they can ship the fish next week!
Anthony you rock

So now i need to check the readings on the system. The PH is still up quite high from memory. I will check tonight and post back.
I cant get a hold of any large amounts of RODI water and the water out of the tap is quite high PH.
I think if i read back there was mention of salting the water, something about that lowers the PH.

Dont forget that there will be 30x 30mm barra fingerlings put in this within a week, so nothing that will harm them.

Any ideas?

Jess what are your readings? And the reading out of the tap?

hey mate con grats....I don't know my water readings....I will have a look later today.

But I have a huge amount of barra feed here...I can put some on the Onslow/Karratha Courier for you ...if you need some....you might need to crush it a bit....

You might of read this one thousand time but slowly adjust the fish to you water....like take one cup out and add 2 cup fulls in, over an hour at leat...and add an airator lead....so you don't shock them, and keep them breathing.

They will already be highly stressed when they arrive, so general rule of thumb is not to feed for at least a day or 2 maybe even 3.

AND don't keep staring at them, the fish will come around, just give them time to adjust.

How much air have you got ???

I have a few spare airators , you can borrow one ...you can never have too much air, especially at the start of an intro, or at the end of a grow out.

PM or call if your in dire doubt....Keep salt to a 4 ppm MAX as over will kill the bacteria of if you add more than that, and your system is too small to handle that.

And all the best of luck....slowly slowly at the start....once they are adjusted them the game is on

Hi Jess,

Thanks for the offer of that food and airator. i will take you up on both. i will PM you and we can organise some compensation.

Now getting ready for the fish.
I think that i am going to have a problem. the PH is 8.6 atm and i have to topup the tank due to evap and the water up here is high in PH. i will bet that when i fill up the tank the PH will top out above 8.8.

As i have free access to a beach could i add seawater? It should be less PH than the tap water and the added salt to the water would not be that bad for the system. I guess i could not do it the whole time.

But either way i now need a "safe, fish friendly way" to lower the PH of the water. From the reading i have done i need to keep teh PH down around 7.2. that could rise over time, but to start with i need to match the conditions from the farm.

So how do i "safely" get the PH down to 7.0 with no access to water below 8.0
I dont get RAIN up hear so that is out of the question. I can salt the water to some extent, but that can be a long term solution.

CH

Hey Fodder....You can lower the pH with hydrochloric acid. That is one way.

I have 20 kg of barra feed.I am more than happy to give you 10 kg or more of it...as obviously I will not be using it. How big are the fish being sent down ???

And I have a brand new airator from BYAP never used...you can buy of me for same price as I bought...or you can take my old one and fit the spare diaphram onto it. Any way up to you...

Hi Jess,

10kg of food is heaps, heaps of heaps!
and i will take the new BYAP airator, thanks again for that.

i just did a quick search on hydrochloric acid and it looks like i can get it from a pool shop. they use it for the water. i will give then a call on monday.

ch

When do the fish arrive Fodder ??

And how big ??

I will send up with the feed and airator , Pure Onslow Salt aswell....Only the Best in the west

check PM

I am getting 30 x 30mm barra.
The fish are set to arrive on Saturday, 545pm if everything goes according to plan (and it never does)

OK..so IMHO just test the water, don't change any variable....PLEASE...leave pH as is, add the extra airator, and chill.

30 mm fish is an OK size....They bolt fast ( sorry every time I read 30 mm in my brain box I thought 30 cm )

you can't get everything perfect Fodder, once you add the fish there could be a slight spike of ammonia or NO2 ......hopefully the enviroment is already matured to handle this.

The ph is the least of you worries. You will be OK....just relax and let nature do its thing and when in doubt add extra air ( like I know NOT, I never had fresh water fish before this, just aquariums on boats I worked in Shark Bay !! )

Ok,

I am happy to leave it if those conditions (PH 8. is ok for the fish.

I have to top up the tank, Normally i let it drop 100mm but now I will have too top it up a little bit at a time.

Either way everything is as ready as it is going to be.

CH

I have a 6ft fish tank that is the next project.
I am going to turn it intoa a reef tank.

Cant wait, also found a project for LED lighting, much better for heat build up and power consuption!!!