Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi there, your topics have been very informative for my hubby and I since we started looking into aquaponics. Last Easter we got our little system of a 1000 litre tank and a 2 square metre grow bed, which is only 10cm deep.
It all cycled pretty quickly and we had Goldfish in there in no time. Then we introduced 22 Silverperch fingerlings........and of course they wheren't doing much over the winter period. Some have defenitely doubled in size until today!
Some of the Goldfish started dying in the last month, but the Perch where fine.
Just last weekend the water started getting really merky. Suddenly we could no longer see the bottom of the tank. Ph was 7.5, Ammonium and Nitrite 0..... as always, but what a visible change in the water!?
Now remember that Sunday the 16th was a really hot day....could that merky water be algae? Green Water Algae? Should we be getting a bigger pump? (ours is 3600l/hr plus backup which runs all the time anyway)

I must also stress, that we have been feeding daily, even though we have never seen the fish eat. They always hide! We know that we have to watch our behaviour there, but how do you fatten these buggers up?! The feed we get from the place we bought the perch from sinks!

Now that hubby had to get himself wet and fish all the deadies out......we realized the thick stinking sludge on the bottom. Pew, feed an poo, all stinking bad!
What that makes me wonder about is, that fish poo contains e coli, only in small amounts, of course!
Now with the cycling of the water to fertilize the plants......do you think there might be a danger in eating the plants we have grown so far? Considering there is LOTS OF SHIT in the bottom of our tank?
We will clean it all out soon of course, but there is vegies I want to chew on right now!http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/posting.php?mode=post&f=2#

What other test kits are out there? That smell, if not Amonia, what is it? How do I know it's getting worse?

Anyway
Life is too short to go to the Supermarkethttp://www.backyardaquaponic ... =post&f=2#

Sounds like a SLO or a pump not sucking up the solids problem. Your solids are not making it from the tank to the growbeds where the worms can take care of them. Your tank should have no solids in it at all. That is why round tanks with concave bottoms and central SLO arrangements are the order of the day. The rotation of the water in the tank gathers the solids in the middle where they are sucked up by the pump or the SLO. Some pics and more detail would help us to decipher the problem and give some possible solutions.

No e-colie fish are cold bloded
The smell probably H2S
Cheers

Hi Frauke, firstly have you got your water test results?

If you have any fish left, stop feeding (silver perch only feeds once a week if that when its cold) as the buildup of waste and food may have caused your water quality to go bad.

Also salt to 1-2pp to help with any fish thats left too.

Also you have (had) way to many fish in there. For a 200l gb 10 fish would have been appropriate

That really nasty smell from the rotting fish feed and waste is probably hydrogen Sulfide and that can kill fish. It is one of the nasty things you can get when you let someplace in an aquaponics system go anaerobic.

I wouldn't worry about the safety of the veggies in this situation.

I would suggest that you clear the bottom of the tank with a fish net, run the pump full time, get a freshwater master test kit and switch to floating food but stop feeding till the water clears.

"Leaf Rake" from a pool supply place has done the trick for me. I have leaves, blossoms, what have you falling on the water all the time. Other solids too, since I have a mesh-box keeping the pump clear of stuff over, eh, about 3mm.
My water flow is roughly a "swirl" round and round so there is a cone of stillness in the middle where a pile forms.
If I go too many days without scooping the pile from the middle, there is a definite bad smell and I feel guilty releasing that onto my fishies.
What Faye said, scoop it out or wet-vacuum it out, run the pump full time. No food at least till there's no smell.
They won't have an appetite anyway! Would you?


Rick