Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here is a good deal: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9745&start=15

Would love to buy it myself but I need to wait till I move.

Or: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9872

why not just silicon up the bolts and keep the tank

I should take out screws but I reckon its the galv and I gave the tank and GBs a pretty good paint before I started using them, If I have to repair FT every 9 months or so its not worth messing about with.

Switched to constant flood last night and no one dieing this morning.
I figured the GBs may filter out heavy metals and extra airation may help.
Still gonna get rid of all galv tanks, GBs and FT.
I will also need to fully wash gravel to be sure to get all galv traces out of system.

You have to be careful not to blame the wrong reasons though. I have had water flowing over galvanized metal in my oldest system. There's a hole in the bottom of the growbed where water flows over the galv and drips off the base of the galv growbed, and it's been like this for about 8-9 years.. For the last couple of months water has been flowing down the side of my galv growbed where there's an over flow hole drilled.. Thats quite a lot of water flowing over unsealed galv 24/7 but silvers are happy and healthy....

I'm not saying that I think unprotected galv is good, just that my experience has shown it's not quite as high toxicity as what many think.. I don;t think a couple of skrews would cause any problem, otherwise all my fish should be dead..

>I have lost about 4 SP over the last week.
>Checked water param this morning and all good.
>rites 0
>ammonia 0
>Ph 6

And I know of people who had a goldfish in their old tank for years to keep the mosquitoes under control. But it might depend on acidity or something, as rup said it could have been be much lower than 6.

Cant fish die ages later from things like acidic water anyway, regardless of the zinc dissolving or not. I read somewhere about gill damage that can manifest later.

Well its seems odd that since I switched to constant flood last night that the Dieing has stopped. Maybe the problem has been lack of O2 all along.
I pulled my Venturi airator off a while back and replaced it with my original small pond pump. This pumps 24/7 within the FT. The flow is pointed paralell to surface of water so that it airates and also circulates water in FT. The reason I pulled the Venturi off was to get more flow through the GB during flooding.
I have 2 airstones about 100mm in length which also go 24/7.
Maybe the venturi coming on just at Flooding ie 15min out of every hour was giving more air than the little pond pump on 24/7.
The constant flood certain does a good job of airating with the water splashing down into FT.
I will keep it on constant flood for now and monitor.
I also think it would be prudent to recoat FT .

Checked all water param this arvo and all good,
Ammonia 0
Rites 0
Rates 0
PH 6.6
Water temp 13deg.

I was surprised to see PH at 6.6 as I had pretty much emptied tank to get trout out which was about 4 days ago.
The only thing that is concerning me is that all fish are totally off the food, and have been for the past couple of days.

Probably the changing of water etc.
If you had a sub 6 PH and suddenly put in water with a lot higher PH that would have been a bit of a shock to them. Plus any stress from you trying to catch the trout.
Finally its been damn cold at nights here, I expect in Perth its the same so water temps could be right down.

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The fishes are totally off their food, because they are not feeling good. The stress of firstly trout chasing them around in the tank, then some change in water bringing about new pH levels, plus something that keep poking its head over the tank.

Remember back to the basics, tinker less. Stop feeding the fishes for a few days because if they don't eat you have got to scoop out the uneaten food with a net, and then you stress them out again. And don't let them see you for the few days as well... On maybe try a week.

Thanks guys,
I will cease feeding for a few days and keep on continuous flow.
Cant believe it took me so long to figure it was the lack off O2. Well thats what I have put it down to.
I was going to recoat FT but maybe I will wait till I have a change of fish in FT before I do that.
After considering scrapping current system I came up with a grand plan for a new system.
That may be some time off coming to fruition as I have a load of non AP tasks to do around here.
Thanks again for the advice and I will try hard to keep my tinkering hands away from the system.

Sorry to steel this thread for a second but could food/waste left in the bottom of your FT raise your nitrite readings without disturbing ammonia?

I believe as the food breaks down ammonia would be produced.

If there is enough bacteria it may be converted to nitrite without seen an increase in ammonia. Perhaps the bacteria which converts nitrite to nitrate needs to build up again.

Hmm interesting. Thanks Arbe.