Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

had 300W worth of heaters in there last windter before i had the bath grow bed. Felt bad enough then. Never again. Thats jsut not sustainable.

Monya, i charge you with the duty of reminding me to have my green house done before autumn (fall, for the americans ..........

Gnash, i need stuff ups like this to make me "pull my finger out." But thanks for the suggestion

Steve, have you finished renovating yet? Remember I'm cheap labour if I get fit, in a few months we could have one up in a weekend

Mon, i was actually thinkig the other night "damn it, if monyas back wasn't shrooted i'd seriously think about asking him"

A few months? You on the "good stuff" now, i expect to see you here on the 2nd of jan Hows that workin out for ya BTW?

*frack* it!

Sounds like trout man was on the money

http://www.koivet.com/html/articles/art ... 20Articles

Great, and my tandansus and silvers are arriving the day after i get back in town................

This just gets better and better......................BLOODY HELL!

tell ya what, this trip is getting shorter and shorter................ I just looked up the weather report

We've just had a week of drizzle, max temps around 19C, mins down to 10C and less, my jades have afungal infection that thrives in cold weather, most if not all will die, new fish arriving on the 5th to a compromised tank

the 7 day forecast for melbourne
24C sunny
28C sunny
29C possible showers
29C cloudy
30C sunny
32C sunny
33C sunny

I'm going to sydney, whose 7 day forecast is..............
22C showers
22C showers
22C showers
21C showers
21C showers
21C showers
22C showers

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, i needs as much input as possible in a very short time. I have pushed my departure time back to around 3pm.

What i need to now is;

Will a high concentration 10ppt to 20ppt salt solution for 1 hour kill/ damage my plants or plant roots?

Will the same concentration kill my bacteria? (ironic as i usually answer all the bacteria questions )

The points that i have gleaned from that link i posted on the sap fungus are;

reproduces quicker in cold water temps
a 1% salt solution for 30 minutes for fish is the second best option for treatment. (Can some one please check my figures, i'm very tired, an little stressed, 1% salt solution = 10ppt. yes?)
The fungus can survive in moist soil
the fungus thives on dead or decaying organic tissue, whcih can include rotting fish food.

Ok, so what i'm contemplating doing, is;

1) Putting most of my jades out of their misery, possibly quarantining the lesser (if any exist) affected ones

2) draining my tank onto my lemon tree and no-dig garden (the no dig might not be the best place, as its moist and had decaying matter, but i don't think my lemon tree needs 700lts)

3) rinsing the tank with a weak bleach solution

4) immersing the pump into a 10 - 20 ppt salt solution and close loop pumping it through my grow bed for at least 1 hour (the decaing matter in the bed sounds like a haven for the SAP)

5) re-filling the tank and leaving it with no fish for 4 days (tank temp will hopefully be around 25C most of this time)

Any thoughts / comments would be greatly appreciated ASAP as i'm going to start with the tank in the morning.

For those that missed it i have 15 tandanus and 25 silvers arriving on jan 5th (bundy, there are also 15 for you)

Steve

Jezz Steve can't really help... but a thought, doesn't Troutman run a "cold" water system for his trout??

Wonder if he's ever run into this problem and can help at all???

Humm wonder if he hasn't if it's because of the need to maintain high DO levels... maybe you could dose with lots of O2 as well as everything else.

Growbeds would seem to be the worry though.... scary.

Sorry I can't help... I'll have a word with a mate tomorrow, he's a vet and a aquarium fish guru.

PS... I wonder if cycling warm/salty water through the system would help???

Thanks rupe.

Trout man was the one that pointed me in the SAP. direction. Thanks to you also, trout man.

I don't think its just a "cold water thing".

My take on bacteria / fungus /stuff (:)) is that they are EVERYWHERE. They just need to be given the right environment to flourish / take hold.

Thast why we can de-chlorinate our sterile tap water and 4 weeks later have a nitrifying bacteria colony.

I may not have posted this, i cant remember, but last week the poly feed pipe "ended up" on the ground, pumping all but 100 litres of my tank onto the grass (its ok, it was close to the lemon tree )

The quick re-fill with cool tap water (de-chlorinated in 3 steps as it was filling, not the best, but it was all i could do) + the wild temp fluctuations over the last week stressed the fishs immune system so the SAP could take hold. The LOW tank temps over the last week gave the SAP ideal breeding conditions.

I'm not trying to steralize my system, and infact am worried abot the damage (complete) that i'll do to my boifilm on the tank walls, but i want to reduce the NUMBER of this thing to a manageable level for the fish's immune system.

"common cold" germs are around us all the time, but its only when our immune system is stressed or someone coughs a huge "dose" right into our face, that we get sick.

Dumping my new fish into this tank as is, regarless of their immune state (whcih won't be that good anyway from transit) would be a BAD idea i think.

Don't know if these guys could be of any help Steve ...

NSW Silver Perch Growers’ Association
President: Calvin Terry
Mulquinney Rd, Braunstone, NSW 2460
ph: 02 6649 3528
Secretary: Sam Clift
"Boori", Boori Rd, Curlewis, NSW 2381
ph/fax: 02 6744 5816

From the quick googling I've down it sounds like catfish are as suseptable to this as Perch (especially silvers)...

Even if you isolate your Jades and/or dump your tank, it looks like you may have to flush your whole system.

I gather that having to re-cycle from scratch would be a pain and problem with new fish due, so I guess action (4) may be the only way to save something out of the situation.

Had thought that if you were to closed cycling with salty warm water it might help the growbeds, but seems this fungus can survive up to about 25C anyway. I'd probably still be tempted anyway

Not sure about the effect of the salt on the plants but from my gardening and hydroponics experience I've used some fairly warm solutions without effect on plants.

Only other references I saw to treatment involved the "green", salt, formalin, potassium permanganate or hydrogen peroxide... all sound pretty devasting to bacteria growth in growbeds to me.

I no Nothing about caring for fish
But estabish Plants should handle a warm salty rinse, seedlings would probably suffer.
I don't know what it will do to the bacteria.
I sincerely hope you get it resolved quickly.

Oh boy, what a mess, Steve. I've tried to do a little research for you, but I don't have any definitive answers for you. That said, your approach (all 5 steps) actually seems reasonable. I don't think you have a lot of choices other than to purge the setup.

Salt damage to plants: I don't think 1 hour of salt will hurt them, especially if you then flush the system with clean water. They won't have enough time to take much up through the roots. We get salt damage to plants from winter de-icing of roads. It takes quite a bit of salt over the winter months to do the damage.

Salt damage to bacteria: Well, folks with salt-water aquariums also rely on the nitrogen cycle, and depending on the brand of bacteria starter you buy, it's the same stuff for saltwater and freshwater. (Some brands do offer a saltwater starter and a freshwater starter, though.) The implication is that at least some of our bacteria can survive in some range of salinity. You may do some damage to the bacteria anyway though, so feed the new fish lightly at first.

1 percent = 1/100 = 10/1000 = 10 parts per thousand. Your math is correct, Steve.

If there is any way to remove decaying matter from the grow beds (old roots, dead leaves, etc), that might be a good idea, too. Anything that is in or on the gravel could harbor pockets of fungus.

Good Luck!

Steve, this just goes from bad to worse doesn't it? I have heard that catfish are really susceptible to fungal diseases because they don't have scales. Maybe I'm mistaken

To me, it sounds like you may be better starting system 2 now . I know that sounds a bit harsh, but it would really suck if the disease hung around and infected your new fish . In some ways it may be easier to do a major overhaul now rather than fight all the problems down the track. Sorry, just my 2 cents worth . Otherwise could you set up a salt bath in an aquarium at mega dose levels, empty your IBC, give it a clean and pump out again, your biofilm is the least of your worries IMHO, then when you have it as clean as possible, refill it and pop the Jades back in. Meanwhile maybe a couple of rinses of the gravel may help, who knows. If it nails some of your bacteria, you are not feeding for the next 5 days anyway... Maybe all of this is just drivel, but I am only saying what comes to mind, you always help us all out soo much, it sucks you are having such dramas

Hey Steve
If you need a hand ( Physical Labour) I'm not working today
Cheers
Ron

Shit! Regarding temp fluctuations, it is not unusual for mine to go from 28 in the day to 18 overnight.

Steve - do you think that postponing your order (or rediverting it to another member) may be in order at this point.