Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all

This is your standard, run of the mill Barrelponics system in a greenhouse in the desert.

My water tests have been pretty much the same across the board so decided to do them every other day and not waste reagents.

There are 2 jalapeno plants, 1 cauliflower, 1 tomato, few seedling broccoli, and a muskmelon plant. I have about 24 goldies ranging in size from 2 to 4 inches. Water temps range between 52 and 58 in the mornings and in the mid 70's during day.

Water tests today were really spiked with no physical changes in the system. Here are the readings: Nitrate 40 ppm up from 10-20, Nitrite 2.0-5.0 up from1.0, ammonia steady at .50, Ph steady at 8.2 (the ranges are because at those levels its hard to distinguish which one is closer) I also used a bacteria starter.

This system is 2 1/2 weeks old.

Is there anything I need to be doing, or not doing? Should I be worrying about the high readings?

I thought I read somewhere that readings will spike just before it cycles?

Thanks for the wonderful forum

Cindy

Welcome Cindy,

Stop feeding if you haven't already and let the readings come down. The Nitrates aren't a problem but the Nitrite and Ammonia are. You should probably add salt to your system to mitigate the effects of the Nitrite. Do a search and you'll find the amount needed. I don't know how big your system is but it sounds like you may have more fish than you should.

Normally I would do a water change but I don't know about doing a water change in this case. Part of what's keeping the ammonia less toxic is the pH and temp and a water change might lower the pH, raise the temp and make the ammonia more toxic. I'd go with whatever good advice you get from others on that.

Scotty435 thank you for you come back, appreciate it. fish tank is about 40-45 gals. How long can these goldies go without being fed? PH out of well is 8.2.

Cindy

Welcome, Cindy!
Goldfish can go a week or two without feeding without too much difficulty, longer with colder water.

Welcome to the forum! I did the field work for my Geology Masters Degree in Capitol Reef Nat'l Park, and am fairly familiar with SW Utah. Beautiful locations out there!

Hi swanberg, thank you, I didn't want the poor little things dying of hunger if they have put up with high readings Only been here for 5 years, moved out from NW Ohio. Lived on an Island in Lake Erie, and have to admit, its a tad dustier out here lol But I love it.

Cindy

Cindy, how are the fish acting? Any gasping for air at the surface? I'm thinking based on the pH of the well water that you can probably do a partial water change. If your well is chlorinated then you'll have to take care of that before adding the new water. I would do about a 1/3 water change. Try to get the water temp close before adding in with the fish so they don't have troubles. Your well water is probably in the 50s so you might be better off doing this in the morning. I've been told that a temperature change of about 8 degrees is enough to kill trout but goldfish are much more durable.

Check your readings and let us know what you get.

Fish are doing fine. I have an aquarium air pump with 2 airstones running. Well water is not chlorinated. Water temp in FT this a.m. was about 68, which is better than it has been in the mornings. It got up to 78 yesterday afternoon. I am anticipating temps over 80 when the summer gets crankin. I have a spare freezer with frozen water bottles ready.
Any significance to algae on the sides of FT and Float tank? (system is in a greenhouse that has dual layers inflated) Does warmer water help cycle faster than cooler?
Water tests were still pretty much the same as stated above and we are in week 3 of system life.

warmer water will help the cycling, but you want to cover the ft from too much light getting in or you'll get an algae bloom..

Yep, what Keith said

Glad the fish are looking ok. Let some well water warm to the tank temp and do a water change if you haven't already.

ok, I did a 15 gal water change yesterday. I went out this morning and did a water test.

Water temp. 68
Nitrates 40
Nitrites between 2.0 and 5.0,,, hard to tell color at those levels
Ammonia .25 maybe a touch less

Cindy

Looks like you need to continue witholding the feed. Nitrites are still high. I would add salt. I checked this site http://thegab.org/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=140&jfile=viewtopic.php&f=8&t=22368 for the salt level to add for goldfish and it looks like .25 lbs per 100 gal would do the trick.

Keep track of the readings, the nitrites should start to go down in a few days. The goldfish can stand this level as long as the water is salted.

OK thanks. I have read in this forum that plants can be replaced easier than the fish. How much damage will salting the tank hurt the plants at a 3 teaspoons/gal ratio? The plants are basically experimental at the moment but I do have a couple jalapeno plants that are producing fruit and really would rather not kill them. The plants that I have in there are not growing well but they aren't dying either.

Hi Cindy. Where did the 3tsp per gallon number come from? The .25 lbs that I suggested is about 20 teaspoons of salt in 100 gallons and should be plenty for what you're trying to do. As far as the plants - the halapenos should be ok at the level I suggested and at the higher level as well. The higher level isn't necessary for taking care of the nitrites but does help the fish maintain good health - the recommended 3Kg salt/1000L roughly translates to about what you listed. My quick estimate came to 2.6 teaspoons per gallon but I'm just doing the conversion by memory so I might be off. Some plants, like strawberries might have troubles with the higher salt but most will be fine. Cheers

lol you guys and your conversions. You convert things that I didn't even know there were conversions for. Thanks, I appreciate it. I am learning a lot from this forum about more than AP.

Oops, should have said a water change might raise the pH, raise the temp and make the ammonia more toxic. Just thought I should correct this in case someone comes drifting through looking for an answer in the future.