Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Got the same protien input from a friend who keeps aquariums, he advised putting a newspaper on the surface of the water to soak it all up by keeping it on there for only 5 seconds and removing, but same as you guys that its not something to worry about.

I haven't fed them at all since i put the new fish in, so can't be waste food, must be protien from the the extra bio load and hopefully be fine in a day or two, already looked better when i looked at them just now. Think I'll withhold feed tommorrow as well just to be on the safe side.

On the plus side, last night had a major power breakdown in the house, the whole upstairs circuit shorted, so the fish spent about 12 hours without any water pumping/filtration/aeration, however now the system is also hooked up to the UPS so will never go down at all, all fish seem to be doing fine, new ones all hanging out at the bottom of the tank and the old pair coming up and begging for food.

I think by next week it ought to be cycled and will then start adjusting the flow such that it floods and drains each GB as over as long a cycle as possible, but considering size and required flowrate to start the auto siphon I doubt if it will be a very big difference.

Put up the shade cloth on top of the bamboo trellis today, chili plant leaves coming along nicely and money plant going great guns, other two yet to develop their roots, changed about 30-40% of the water as it smelt a little fishy, the strange bubbling has vanished, fish still all alive and will be getting their first meal tommorrow.

Moved things around a little and developed a leak at the bottom of one of the GBs, where the standpipe exits it, have turned it off right now so as to let it dry and will then silicon and PVC cement it up, tried to do it right now but the water din't let me, going to use some of that silicon tape too so that ought to do the trick.

ST has a bit of debris in it in the form of leaves and some dirt, but its not coming up into the FT and ST water is largely clear so am not worried about it, should I be?

Very interesting point, had a look at the filter intake of the pump in the ST and found worms in it! at first I thought they were maggots but the gardener was here today and he confirmed them to be worms, wonder how they got in there, would have taken a picture but they hid themselves away, saw what looked like worm poo in it as well, I figure this is a good sign, a very good one?

status update, have lost two more fish, one of the old ones and one of the new dozen that I just added. Found the small one missing when I counted them in the afternoon, have NO idea where it went, its not in the FT or the ST or the GB or anywhere closeby, very strange.

The larger, older one, was the murdered by the SLO, which claims its 3rd kill so far. It managed to get stuck in the little space between the cover thingy I fhashioned for the top of the SLO, which you can see in my recent videos, and the top of the SLO, found it dead just about 30 minutes ago when I went up to look at it just before crashing, its 6:16 am here now. So have now stuffed a piece of foam into the gap and put in just a little so flow isn't restricted, hopefully that should keep that damn SLO from further kills, will think about it more in the morning and try to find a better situation.

Plants still doing well, did a little pruniing, took off the smaller weaker looking leaves on the chili plant and the growing money plant, so that few leaves would grow but grow better and stronger. Fed the fishies, had fed them a little in the afternoon as well, very small amounts, they ate voraciously, once they smelt that the food was in the tank and that they shouldn't be afraid of me.

In summary, kill count at 4 fish, remaining pop is 11 new 1 inch goldies and one older 3 inch goldie, chili plant and money plant with roots doing well, money plant and lemon cutting yet to develop roots, all pruned. Planning on adding a couple more plants over the weekend, another chili plant for sure, and think its about time I visited a nursery and get some more interesting plants

Video update tommorrow night hopefully, if not by then then by sunday night.

Keep on keepin' on everyone

Ah so, quick pre video update, lost another fish, one of the newer, smaller ones, it got stuck in the SLO, somehow managed to get into the bottom of it, had a hell of a time getting out through the crenelations at the bottom, was alive but one of its fins was broken/useless, looked flagging so euthanised it, thats 4 confirmed kills for the SLO and I'm pretty sure the fifth one was also its kill and that the dead fish is somewhere rotting in the water distribution pipes coming from the SLO, though its probably not dead, just suffering somewhere in there, no way to get at it though :[

have added some river rocks around the outside of the SLO now at the bottom of the FT, I know these rocks may cause issue but as there are very few of them I'm hoping I'll get away with it. I still have no way to measure my pH but regardless knowing that source water is about 7.2-7.4 I think i should replace these river rocks with some of the limestone/marble rock i had just to buffer the system against the acidification of the nitrogen cycle, what do you guys think?

plants doing fine, going to transplant some more tommorrow afternoon, video update will be ready for your viewing pleasure in just a few hours, cheers all [:

Sounds OK, but if the sediment gets deep it can create anaerobic and toxic regions that will be released if the thick sediment is disturbed.


Thin red worms like one of these?
http://en.microcosmaquariumexplorer.com ... bifex_Worm
http://www.raingarden.us/bloodworms.htm
Probably not a problem as far as I know, but also not the earthworms I was talking about.


It is really hard to say since you are working blind; I doubt you would need much buffering yet, but you could add one stone.

As far as cycling and testing: I would probably have kept two or four fish for six weeks, then started adding more since you can't test for anything and your main signs of problems will be fish flashing (rubbing their sides on the tank bottom), foam forming, or dead fish. I sure wish you could get one of these: http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... D0Q8wIwAg#

If you can rebuild that SLO, do it: the fish will thank you. I would cut off the pipe that runs through the wall of the tank (I'd use a hacksaw blade and hope it won't yank the seal loose where the pipe passes through the tank wall), leaving at least a cm or two, then add some larger pipe and a T. You can add lots of slots to the drop tube on the SLO to reduce suction if it is still sucking in fish. Don't glue anything inside the tank since it does not matter if it leaks a bit.

Well, good luck!

Dang those fish swim into the worst things don't they!!!! Yea, re-doing your SLO drain with some sort of grill and easy way to pull things apart in the tank for cleaning would be a good thing.

I tend not to glue gravity plumbing if it is in a location I can get at it as long as it doesn't leak much and is not in danger of being knocked about.

A fish stuck in the plumbing is kinda a problem since it will affect flow rates.

They look like those tubifex worms hydro, from the first link you posted. Sediment isn't thick at all just a little bit, will try to put that into my next vid if possible.

i realize the fish may thank me for rebuilding the SLO but am putting that off, would like to not have to re-seal everything but if I lose another fish will surely do that.

Got none of the signs you pointed out hydro except foam forming, and am keeping a close eye on that, water changes seem to get rid of it so will do that regularly over the next week.

The flowrate doesn't seem to be affected TCL but I have not found that fish's body so theres only one explanatiuon for where it may be, currenltly i think its responsible for the foam forming, lets see what happens over the coming week.

have taken some steps to make the SLO less murderous though, and I present them here for your criticisms.

Heres the promised video, enjoy

The punctured pipe on top of the SLO looks like it should really keep the fish out. Good idea.

Yea thats what I thought too hydro, till a damn fish got stuck in the little space on the side, thats why I put in the foam that I meantion in that last video.

So status update, spent three hours in traffic due to some political chap getting shot and killed, UPS burnt out last night so system is experiencing some blackouts but the UPS should, might now actually seeing the law and order scene, be back in the morning. Bad times somewhat made up by the beer I luckily had on me at the time and getting lucky once I got out of the traffic

BUT!

No more fish deaths/kills, as of this morning at least, plants also going great guns, going to take a look before I crash in a bit. Tommorrow am going to chuck in another chili plant and some random flowers that are growing in pots around the house. Thinking about getting another 12 goldies for the tank, maybe just 6, would that just be overcrowding them though?

Also, dreamt about my first at home expansion last night, figure will just get two more of those plastic chests, make one another FT, the other a GB, then divert the flow of the pump from the existing ST into two streams, one feeding each FT, that will effectively make the system 150 liters of FT, what think you guys?

New plants put in, some basil, two different type of chilis, and a much happier chili plant thats the same as the one put in before.

Another fish tried to die, got stuck in between the rocks and the SLO bottom, have put in more rocks to prevent a repeat of its performance, the fish seemed freaked out but okay.

Have patience with the lemon cutting. They seem to get confused for a while when placed in AP, at least mine have. Since they stayed green, I left them in and yes, eventually new leaves do happen.

Interesting about the "rock climber" fish (or is it a "cave diver?"), hope it recovers OK. Was probably quite embarrassing for him...

I am impressed that you can count that many moving objects!

Rick

Hi Abdul,
Great little system you have there. Also I like your video updates. They are both fun and informative!

I see in your latest video you've added a piece of PVC piping. As another poster mentioned the water flow seems to be very strong. Also the goldfish you have are not good swimmers. Notice how their bums wriggle like mad but they hardly go anywhere! That's probably one reason why they are such easy targets for your murdering SLO.
I'd suggest lying a flower pot or similar in there. This will give the fish a chance to rest and hide. I think the poor things are just so worn out!

If you are going to get more fish I'd suggest you get some that are more streamlined and less fat. They will be better swimmers and will cope better with the water flow you have.

I remember you mentioned trying to get smaller gravel? I think your river rocks may not be the best media for the plants.

Keep it up and keep posting the updates.

Paedur

Hey smin, check the fish about half an hour ago and they all seemed fine, though it was rather dark so couldn't make much out.

Wanted smaller media paedur but the smaller gravel I found had limstone in it and had thought about just hitting these till they became smaller but just went ahead and plated, lets see how it performs, I don't think it should be a problem but only time will tell.

The water flow is quite high but only at the surface level, they seem much more at ease when they're at the bottom, but have added that 2" PVC pipe into it and put some rocks around it to make it stable so that they have something to play/hide/rest in.

Water smelt just a liiitttlee bit fishy when I smelt it right now, din't change any though, think I want the bacteria to catch up to the ammonia/nitrites in the system so that I can start feeding the fish properly, or at all for that matter, more plants in the system means I need there to be more nutrients!

If you can avoid doing water changes, it will probably help cycling happen faster. Really tricky to judge without a test kit I know. Are there any aquarium shops around that would test the water for you if you brought it in? I know some pet stores around here will do that.

I think before you add any more fish tanks, you need lots more grow beds. You could probably add two of those bins as grow beds and stick with just the one fish tank. Though it might be easier to get a new one to make as a fish tank and do the modification for the SLO and then move the fish over then turn the "old fish tank" into a grow bed as well as adding another bin as a grow bed.

Hang in there.

Hey heyy TCL, thats a great idea! will make my expansion on this system a lot easier and a lot less work

Hanging on tight as I can at the moment, had more fish deaths today, the SLO struck again, got a report from my sister in the afternoon that one of the fish was swimming funny and din't seem interested in food so ran on over soon as I could, found two fish again stuck by the top of the SLO, a little one and the last big one. Little one was dead so has been removed from the system, big one still had some life left but was barely able to swim so have quarantined him in a tub in my room, hope he survives, he's the last one of the original four.

My friends have dubbed this phenomenon the 'Nemo' effect, and state quite clearly its my fault as I should have learnt from the movie and not allowed them avenues of escape.

Have now gotten a metal grill and put that around the SLO, have also put the PVC pipe on top of the water inflow from the ST pump so that should reduce the flow rate in the tank as well.

If there were any benificial bacteria in the FT filter they're gone now, pulled the canister out and gave it a good wash, am leaving the ST pump alone as I saw worms in it and am hoping they're still there and alive.

Newly planted plants look allright, at least don'e look any worse, removed the lemon cutting, old chilli plant and money plant still growing nicely, am hoping that the new plants will be standing tall by tommorrow.

Fingers crossed, have a bad feeling those goldies are going to manage to find yet some other way to die, will be keeping a closer eye on them next couple of days.