Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

OK, three more gone during the day today.

Have tested the water again and the O2 values are

In the fishtank (pre-cycle) = 15
In the Sump (Pre-Cycle) = 12+
In the fishtank (post-cycle) = 15

I'm currently draining all the sumps, and will look at cleaning them, and seeing if there's anything in there that might be causing a problem, before re-filling. That'll be about a 50% change.

No big pile of fishy corpses this morning - there is one floating that I can't get to, and I think that was there since yesterday evening.

A 50% water change is done, and I've cleaned out the main sump of lots of mud and escaped Hydroton. There where two metal items in there - a clothes peg (with a small galvanised spring, very small amt of corrosion, and an exterior-grade screw. plastic coated, no corrosion visible.

Have had the doors of the polytunnel open now for nearly a week, and it's getting pretty chilly in there, but the water temp isn't dropping below 18c.

Back to watching and waiting, and ordering the right type of salt, as recommended by WD.

Lost another 5 overnight. Down to 45 fish left.

Waiting on delivery of the proper salt and a salimeter to see what effect they have.

OK we're down to 38, and the salt / salimeter have arrived. I've added 2.5kg so far, and the salimeter reading hasn't changed much yet.Will wait to ensure it's all nicely distributed then will test again and probably add another 2.5kg

Added 5kg salt total, very slight reading on salimeter - added another 2.5kg to see where that gets us. At this rate I'll need more salt!

Good luck man, you are having a bad time eh

I've certainly had better times

Just annoyed now that I can't stop them dying, nor will they all go at once. At this rate we'll have another week of them dropping off a few-per-day. If we could at least keep some alive then we'd know that we've solved the problem and it's safe to re-stock. If they all die, then it'd be a brave / foolish man who'd just go get another 100.

Hi Andrew

Sorry to hear that the blighters are keeling over. We have been trying to see what we would do in similar circumstances. Flushing would be number one and perhaps several flushes at that,but then flushing and saltin g are our answer to most problems.
Sometimes you have to use a bit of lateral thought. Is there any chance that a pesticide has got in the water, is there a plant that has a killer effect like pyrethrum. Nice border plant but deadly to fish. Are there little pockets of stagnation in your square tanks, fish and sump. Your salt meter should show about 1- 2 parts per thousand, if you go over that too much you could damage the plants and it might have an effect on the bacteria.
If at the end of the day you cannot figure it out, then speak to your supplier and see if he can come up with an answer, knowing the bloke I know he is very experienced and might suggest something we haven't thought of.

Don't give up.

WD and OH.

It probably just needs some time now to let the effect of the 50% water change and the 1.5ppt salt take effect. I'll have a think about the plants and see if anything we're growing might be dodgy.

Thanks!

Woo hoo - no deaths overnight (and yes, there are some left) Let's see how we go today. At the moment I'm concerned that they might be starving - haven't fed them in over a week.

I bought 150 feeder goldfish. Little by little they all were dying off. Just a few a day. Got down to only 72 left. I then got a salt test and salted with sea salt to 2 ppt. That was almost two months ago and I have only lost one since, got stuck in the sump. Hope the salt works for you like it did for me.

Thanks Native - good to know! Fingers crossed (I haven't been down there yet this morning)

OK, none dead for the last three days. I'm going to hope we're past the worst of it and put it down to:

- excess feed on bottom of tank
- not enough oxygen
- possibly some metals in the tanks corroding
- not having salted properly



Thanks for all the help and support guys - essential!

ok, still dying - 3 last week, then five over the weekend. Not sure whether I should be feeding or not, so just feeding little and often. Now down to 28 left out of the 100. All water params looked good last week, will re-test them again tomorrow.

Have a couple of calls to make in the morning, but if they don't work then I am a bit stumped. almost feel like culling the remaining 28, draining system completely, and then using carp.

Gee tough luck there Andrew.

Have you chatted with the supplier or an Aquarium shop for ideas on the issue?