Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ah, what kind of metal comprises the metal grille?

Next time you get fish, you might want to ask for the ones that are not suicidal seeing as you seem to have had a bad run of fish suicides by drain plumbing.

I hope the metal grill is temporary just until you can build the new SLO drain with proper grating or holes in the pipes to allow water flow but not fish flow.

Heres a vid showing off the snazzy new SLO cover, its only intended to be temporary till the fish are too big to fit into the bottom spaces at least, otherwise I see no harm in it being in the system, might even add some iron I figure, do correct me if I'm wrong? Not sure what kind of metal it is smin, will have a closer look in the morning and update you guys. I want a better SLO but the idea of having to break the seal and then reseal the FT is a little frightening, what do you guys think, go for an all out new SLO, made out of bigger pipe perhaps and with many tiny drill holes at the bottom, or if this grill defence system works to stick with it?

Also, sadly lost the big goldie, quarantined it too late I think, down to 9 goldies in the tank now, all from the new batch. Still yet to lose a fish due to water quality or any other reason, damn bloodthirsty SLO, was fine for a couple of days and then today it ups and gets two of them together

Anyhew, if they manage to survive another week without deaths, fishy smells, or the bubbles coming back, along with the plants continuing to flourish, I will assume it cycled and will get at least 6 more goldies, maybe even a dozen if there's space enough, and start feeding aggressively.

TCL, what I really enjoy is that you automatically assume its the fish that have the suicidal problems and not point at me as the cause of it, heartening to have someone in my corner

Another good update! Cool.

The surviving goldies do seem more relaxed with the reduced water flow in there.

The SLO isolator is a good idea. Your SLO is a vicious thing and should be kept away from the innocent! Perhaps you can fashion a protector out of a 2L plastic drinks bottle? It's generally not a good idea to have metal in a tank for too long.
Cut off the top & bottom, slit the whole cylinder in half so you can wrap it around the SLO, cut slots in it for water flow.
You might have some trouble fixing it though.

Or perhaps a large piece of perspex, drilled and/or slotted set diagonally across the corner? Reaching from top to bottom it should be easier to fix.

Paedur

Good idea, Paedur. Perhaps it could be held in place with a couple rubber bands or a zip-tie.

That wire mesh looks like what we call galvanized hardware cloth. Some fish, especially trout relatives, are very sensitive to the zinc that leaches from the galvanizing, others may take a while to show ill effects, maybe not until the PH drops low enough to corrode it. Still, it would be a good idea to eliminate it in a week or two...

zip-ties & gaffer tape - the handyman best friends!
And a nice cuppa tea at the end of the day.

Warning: Post may contain gore and/or ranting.

Great input on the wire mesh, will try to change it up ASAP, have been told theres some plastic mesh somewhere in the house will use that or use paedurs soda bottle idea, I really like that one.

If the grill is pure iron won't it be allright in the tank as it will only add much needed iron even if it does corrode...? Hy dro makes a very good point about the zinc leaching in this regards though.

I feel I should maybe change my username to 'fishkiller' or something to that effect, there are now only 8 goldies left in my system, i.e. 50% of the fish that have been put in there have died, and none of natural causes it seems.

Woke up in the afternoon today to find electricity missing in action, went up to the fish, they all seemed happy, were still 9 of them at this point, fed them and they ate voraciously. The new plants looked a little wilted, may have been the missing electricity which had only been gone one hour or the fact that the pipe had slipped off the pump in the ST, so no knowing how long the system had not been cycling water, the older two plants looked fine and dandy though.

Once electricity came back, I tried to shift the power connection to the ground floor, which still has a working UPS, pulled the plug out and hooked up another extension, plugged that in downstairs, when I came up to check I saw that the pump still wasn't running, so figured that the new extension cord must not work, however one of my earlier paranoias was realized.

I've always been afraid that if the electricity stops the fish may get sucked into the pipe thats coming up from the ST as it siphons just a little bit when flow stops and water level drops, but this had not happened yet and had disregarded it once I put the system on UPS. However, due to that PVC pipe I added on the end of it to reduce flow, a much larger siphon was established and water level was really low, maybe 25% of the FT, when I came up and checked.

And a fish was missing.

I ran downstairs and pulled up the extension, plugged it into the working outlet and ran back up, hoping that the fish was just in the pipe and would get spat back out into the FT, scared but alive.

The fish did get spat out, but in pieces.

Quickly turned off the water, took the fish out, changed about 70-80% of the total system water and grabbed out the pieces of the fish that were there and its gill thingies that were floating around with a siphon. Don't think all of it came out.

Put the fish back in, put in some of that oxycure salt, firmed up the pipe connection to the pump in the ST and put that PVC piece back on the floor of the tank, better they deal with a little extra flow than be chomped to bits by the pump.

So at last I have murdered a fish, I think this one was very much my kill through tinkering with it rather than the SLO or the piping or the fish trying to escape, sad.

Will continue feeding tommorrow if the water is still running clear and doesn't smell fishy, will also get 12 more goldies IF the killing stops.

I think you must get rid of the murderous SLO. It's starting to influence the inlet side of the operation!

Goldies are actually quite hardy, and can handle fairly poor water quality. (Although like most fish, they don't handle being chopped up too well).
I think you don't need to fret so much with the water changes as the frequent changes do constitute stress on the survivors. Even in an unfiltered tank they should be fine for a few days to a week at your stocking levels. As you have the GB's and the plants are growing - esp the money plants, I guess if you could stop the fishies being eaten by either the veteran murderer outlet or the newbie murderer inlet, the system should be fairly stable.

Hold off on the new goldies until you've sorted out the murdererers.
And you might consider goldfish that are better swimmers. I don't know what they are called but get goldfish that are less fat and more streamilned. Tails should be functionally effective rather than decoratively flowing.

Good luck!

Paedur

And for your continuing effort, and untiring dedication to getting it right, I offer a sincere

Metal: pure iron can indeed be a good influence. But additives scare me. "If it don't rust, don't give it your trust"

Rick

Hang in there. Ya can't be a fish farmer without killing a few fish.
You seem to learn from your experiences so that is a good thing. The wire is probably ok so long as it is only temporary. When you swap out the SLO (or like I suggested make a new one in a new tank and then swap the old tank to use as a grow bed.)

Design the new SLO so that you can pop the pipe out of the fish tank when needed (just leaving the piece that goes through the fish tank sealed in but detachable at the T.) The using a cap on the bottom of the pipe and drill lots of little holes in the cap and around the lower end of the pipe as well as a few in the piece extending above the water line as an over flow that hopefully won't suck the fish in.

If you can arrange the feed from the pump to the fish tank in such a manner that the end of the pipe is not in the water, you should be able to put the bypass back in and reduce the flow some to allow your gold fish the more relaxing flows that may help them stay alive better. One way you might be able to do this is make a spray bar that you could zip tie to the side of the fish tank to spray the water on the surface which will give improved aeration along with avoiding the siphon situation as well. Heck a spray bar with lots of holes spraying onto the surface of the fish tank may also distribute the flow enough to make it a little gentler for the fish as well without needing to reduce the flow as much.

HEY! I have an idea! How about raising critters that don't mind being chopped up? Flatworms and starfish come to mind, but I'm not sure about the ornamental or edible value. Hmmm

Seriously though, you have my sympathy. It is always a bummer when you kill fish. Some of us have done it in groups of one or two fish, some kills tally in kilos, some in hundreds of kilos (ouch!). At least you are killing one or two at a time rather than going wholesale and you are learning from it. Keep up the good work! It will get better!

Yea TCL thats how I plan my new SLO, not gloued together, and with loads of little holes at the bottom and will make sure it works this time so that the top is well clear of the water surface. Am also thinking on the spraybar idea, will implement that or some other contraption to reduce flow.

The starfish in your picture certainly has ornamental value hydro, how was it to eat ;]?

Yea am trucking along, keep reminding myself these fish were always meant to be a canary test.

Minor update just now, plants happy now, old chili and money plant going great, new chili's all doing reasonably, Basil is by far happiest and is pointing straight up and proud. DId a bit of pruning, took out all the dead looking and munched on looking leaves out, have a good feeling about nitrates in the syttem now, they're definately there and feeding the plants.

8 Goldies still in the tank, phew, flow still quite fast but now they are afforeded a null point behind the PVC pipe toy and inside it which they seem to be using, though they still like hanging out near the bottom of the SLO which disturbs me, perhaps plotting another escape attempt, and they're getting together in packs near it, goldies brainstorming?!

anyhew, they din't get fed today, they will tommorrow, water is nice and clean looking and smelling so they will start getting fed twice a day tommorrow. As the plants seem to be taking off will try and plant some more in over this weekend, hopefully they'll be in my weekly update which I'll do Saturday or Sunday.

Cheers all :]

Abdul,
I must admit to being fascinated by your continuing saga.

Is it a case of a vicious killer SLO feeding on the innocent?

Or are the Goldies throwing their lives away in a desperate attempt for freedom?

Will the chili plant pull through to bear fruit?

And how will the hapless Abdul cope with the stress? Will he struggle through to win the day or will the SLO finally claim it's ultimate prey?

Watch this thread as the riveting story unfolds...

Take care,

Paedur

LOL, thanks for the support paedur, heres hoping we all have a happy ending, theres nothing like a little liquid courage to help with the stress though [;

Hydro the grill is rusting and you said if it rusted I could trust it so can I leave it in you think? will make that part of my video update tommorrow.

Went up and looked at them a bit ago, all eight fish still there plants seem a little on the droopy side, just a little mind, and only because they looked much happier in the morning when I went to to feed the fishies, anyhew was probably because there were electricity blackouts due to rain, I wasn't home but I'm sure there were, also pretty sure some rainwater got into the system after dripping through the shade cloth and into the GB's. Fish seem quite content though, still too many hanging out close to the SLO for my liking though.

Water is crystal clear, smells nice and clean. The UPS is back and working, I think, so they shouldn't have to deal with power breakdowns anymore, will feed them at least twice tommorrow.

Tally hooo!

Rust isn't a guarantee of safety. It just means that the galvanized coating is weak and already partly gone where it is rusting.