Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

All seems better. I have put lime in plus the shell grit and no more lost fish for 24 hours, so lets hope problem fixed.

Many thanks,

Linda

I Just checked the PH and it now says 6.4 Yeah....it has come up.

Questions now....what is the best level to keep it at?

What about grinding up egg shells and putting that in a bag?

I have used the Trill shell grit for birds now.

Thanks,

LInda

You could grind up egg shells or you could buy a bag of shell grit from BYAP or a Pet/Produce store. Much less effort.

http://backyardaquaponics.com/shop.html ... gory_id=16

One other question... Where did you get your fish?

Got the fish from Golder Pond.

Thanks to you all for your help. I have increased the Ph with lime and shell grit and that seems to have fixed the problem. No more loss of fish.

What is the best Ph level to maintain please?

Linda

Between 6 and 7 would be good imho

Hi Linda, to my knowledge the shell grit will continue to break down until the pH reaches around 7.4 and then sit at that level. That is quite okay and is far safer than trying to rise and lower pH.
Happy to hear that the fish seems to be doing better now.

I am having the same problem with my silver perch this week. I got them at the beginning of November when I started to cycle my new aquaponics system. The system has been cycling well and the fish were doing well until last week, then for some reason I have one die almost every day.

My system readings for the last few days are normal enough i think. Ammonia has decreased from 0.25 - 0, nitrite always been 0, pH 7 - 7.2 and nitrate has been rising slowly, now at 20 - 30. The fish all look well, swimming around together and eating well, then in the morning I have a dead one floating with it's mouth open. I have 2 air balls in the bottom of the tank, water temps are between 18 and 31 degrees.

Reading the above posts it would seem my pH is OK at 7.2 so can anyone offer any other possible causes. I changed the feed last week from 1 mm pellet to 5mm pellet which I am crushing up as I think 5mm is still a bit big for fingerlings of 5 - 10cm. Since changing the feed type and size I have had deaths. could this be something to do with it? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hey Fishfingered I am thinking that by the time a fish floats it as been dead for some time. Is it possible that fish have died, causing others to die without you knowing? The feed that you have would be way too big for the fish to swallow and I wonder if that has ended up on the bottom on the tank. Can you scoop the bottom of the tank and see if there is anything else there? The high temperatures of the last few days may have contributed especially if you have the lid on and the heat cannot escape. I would be adding pool salt straight away at the rate of 3ppt or 3kg to 1000 litres of fish tank water. Picture also might help as I am not very familiar with the system that you have and the filtration, growbeds etc, etc? The more info the better, the above is just a couple of ideas at first glance.

I am just readfing up on silver perch and wonder if the temps are something to do with it, the fluctuation is quite large eg, this morning temps readings were 21.4 min to 31.2 max so a drop of 10 degrees over night. i might remove the colourbond lid i made for the IBC tank to keep the daytime temp a bit lower as opening the lid late afternoon I can feel the warmth come out from the tank. However, if it was a temp problem would I not have more fish dying at the same time rather than just one. The tank water is clear so I can see the bottom and there seems to be no dead fish there, but will trawl the bottom with the net to make sure. Will add a little salt as you recommend.
Although I bought 5mm pellets I have been crushing them with pestle and morter to at least half the size to begin with and now down to fine crumble as I was worried about the pellet size being too large for the fish. I thought this might have something to do with it.
Thanks for your advice.