Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i killed it sorry

REALLY spewing too

NNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!


Hmmm, will have to find a different way to try and get another 1 to you

i tried really hard to make it live.................

Sorry for the hi-jack muzz

New Test kit arrived today..... I have not had one before so I am a bit excited.
Out to test the water ASAP.
Nitrate = 0 Water from the return sump.
PH 6.6 tp 6.8 Water from the return sump.
Ammonia 0 to .25 Water from the fish tank.

I have not taken much notice of the threads on testing before, but I presume these readings are good ??? no/yes ????

If the Nitrates test 0 then there is not much point testing the Nitrites is there ?

It would appear to me that all the fish waste is being converted by the bacterium and all of it it's by-product is being used by the plants. Is that a correct assumption ?

Muzza

Muzz, the plants need the nitrates for growth and should be 40+, did you mention a day or so ago that you suspected potassium deficiency? (maybe a nitrate problem) - will let the experts take over on this one



The nitrates slowly builds up and when in balance then remains constant, if it reads zero (anywhere in the system), then it is zero throughout the system

I wonder whether Muzz means Nitrite, if not then yes this is going to be a big issue for plant growth. I ran at 0 nitrate for quite a while after a few days away once. The big tom plant was stripping it quicker than it could be produced. Let's await confirmation that the nitrate and not nitrite is 0. It is distinctly possible that nitrate is 0 I guess cause from memory Muzz has 3 grow beds all with lots of plants, but most of the fish a pretty small. There are 10 whoppers though.

Muzz, if nitrate is in fact 0, is there scope to increase your feeding regime. How many times a day are you feeding and do you feed until the fish stop eating?

VB .....It is the Nitrate that is 0.... I will feed more and I reckon I will slip over to Beenleigh and get another 100 little fellers in the next day or two.
Interesting this testing stuff !!!!!
Flying by the seat of my pants I have always felt that it is better to have the plants starving a bit rather than risk poisioning the fish in their own poo, so I keep the feed to a minimum. I will bump ithe feed up immediately.

Muzza

I'd hold off on getting too many fish Murray unless you are prepared to up the grow-bed space once they get bigger. Maybe see what happens when you implement a different feeding regime. You might find that the littlies grow much more quickly once you start this and then the feed rate will rise exponentially for a little bit. It is tough - because to get what you want now you probably need more fish, but when they get bigger then you would need more grow space -unless you reduced feeding.

hey muz,

what is you growbed to fish tanks ratio? eb's 2:1 recommendation?

cheers

Murray has 1 2300 litre fish tank and 3 approx 550 litre grow-beds. Two of the beds have 20mmgravel and the other has coco-peat. They are flood and drain.

PS Because Muzz knows the bloke who makes the grow-beds intimately, his ability to add additional beds in the future is relativelly high

whats the stocking density and age of the fish in this tank? to many posts to look back over to find out.

Most of Murray's fish died a while back - so now he has 10 really big buggers (like a kilo each), forty little fingerlings and I think about 5 perch that would be no more than 20cm - maybe more like 15cm.

Because Murray has been unable to test his nitrate levels, he may have been going a bit easy on the feed. What I would do is first identify whether nitrate levels can be increased through implementing an intensive feeding regime with existing fish (maybe with the addition of a few more - but not 100). Murray works from home (builds fantastic boats as well as AP gear) so is in a position where he could feed the fish 3 times a day if they will eat that often (which I suspect the little ones will). This will mean that the fish should grow quicker, poo more and feed more as time goes on. Problem with buying another 100 is that the 150+ fish are likely to be too much for his system after a few months growth.

thanks for the info vb.

to hijack this thread.

what i would like to do is grow out the maximum number of fingerlings that won't overcroud before large enough to eat. before they over croud i will harvest some.

i would also like to grow crops in sync with the with the nitrate levels.
for fingerlings i will start seeds/ cuttings as they require less nutrients.

how do fingerlings get along with larger fish in the same tank?