Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello everyone, I am in Central Alabama USA. Lots of great info only wished I would have found it all sooner. That way I would not have reinvented the wheel. I imagine that happens alot. The wheel that yall have seems to work better than mine. I have a over 3000 gallon (6 month old) system that has worked great until very recently. If anyone out there could be so kind as to steer me to the appropriate local for me to spill my guts and make all my confessions I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to be evaluated and be given some advice (and take my lashes) as to how to unjam myself with this most disheartning situation.

former very happy aquaculturist

MarkMan

Oh dear that doesnt sound too good Markman, your best bet is to post some photos and a description of your system, the people around here will be more than happy to give you some input and hopefully get things back on track.

Tilapia I presume Markman??

Yes that is correct. I put them in as ?fingerlings? assorted size though. Some grew extremely fast some appeared to never grow. But It may be they are reproducing. Cant tell. I cycle 17 min on and 40 min off. All tests have been running the same for these last 3-4 months. With no absolutley no deaths. Then suddenly 25-30 daily turning belly up. There are several things that happened around that time period.
1. Weather turned cold water stayed above 60 degress F. Anticipating getting too cold I installed a closed loop heating system using copper tubing.

2. Noticed the feed in the automatic feeder looked "off" possibly moldy

3. I had also planted new variety of plants and was rooting various shrubs in the beds wondring if they could be poisoning the system. But wouldnt that be a total kill off

I feel I have too many fish for the system but wouldnt I loose all at once if that was the cause.

This has been going on for about 10 days now.

Could your test kit be faulty? Can you borrow someone elses kit to confirm they are both testing the same?

I killed most of my tilapias last year when I thought rain water was a good idea. They don’t like soft acidic water… which is what we have here in Florida.

Copper pipes is a no no

Yep, I'd go with Milne on the copper issue...

Water temp is my bet, although copper is not good as well.

I have to agree..

Copper is a NO NO.. toxic to the Fish..
Did the fish start to die after you added the Copper is the one question I have..
If your pond/fish tank is slightly acidic the copper would leach into the water slowly..

I don't know the fish species..


Best of Luck with the fish issue..

Juergen

I think everything is pointing to the copper as the culprit. I will buy another kit to test the water could be bad. Temp?? I will not rule anything out at this time but it was my understanding that 60 degrees F. was considered safe again I could be wrong. I will pull the copper tomorrow and replace with PEX if anyone has any experience with that let me know quickly. Tilapia is the species.

And yes the fish started to die a couple of days after the copper install but several thing were happening at the same time as well hence my frustration as to what is the issue.

Yes it must be the copper

MarkMan

Copper isn't good, but it usually takes a pretty good amount of time for any considerable accumulation via pipes. My gut is that the lower temps which will drastically slow down your nitrogen cycle, combined with excess uneaten food probably resulted in an ammonia spike, and your kit didn't pick up on it. 60F is okay for certain strains of tilapia, but they eat very, very little and aren't going to be growing, just maintaining. An autofeeeder is always a bit of a risk, but particularly so when temperatures are low enough to impact feeding.

Hi Markman, what part of Alabama? I'm near Montgomery and would love to visit an operational AP system. They have copper tests at most pet supply places, especially ones that service saltwater aquariums. I've had friends lose their coral propagation tanks to some idiot tossing a penny into one.