Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Temperature is fine.

The cloudiness will clear in a day or two as the media starts to perform it's filtering better as it ages (without becoming completely clogged ) If, after a week, you're still worried about the cloudiness or any suspended solids you can either introduce a mechanical filter (scourer pads, pillow filler etc) to remove fine particles, and/or, add the whites from two or three eggs to clarify the water.


Scott

Have added Salt, lets see how it goes.

I just popped my head in and had a looksee and the remainder of the fish are swimming around pretty well. No floaters, no sinkers..

Fingers crossed. I'm just gonna leave it completly for 24-48 hours before I feed again, just to make sure I'm not over doing every thing. Try and isolate the problem child...

Garden Bed Growth

It's already been isolated.... it's you!

"Spectate, don't participate!"

Having cycled my new system with trout earlier this year, I know from experience that trout can be fed as little as once every three days, and with very small amounts. It's more important to keep your fish alive, by keeping the fish waste concentration (ammonia and nitrite) low, than it is to feed the fish lots. You can easily increase feeding AFTER you have fully cycled, not before.

I still have all of my sixty fish.

If you are worried about a lack of nutrients for the plants, you can apply a foliar spray eg powerfeed or maxicrop. Seaweed solution doesn't have nitrogen, but it's a good foliar spray too.

Thanks for your encouragement all..

Will keep you informed of the progress

Only one more death today. Looks like the salt is doing the job..!

I head back to work for 9 days, so I'll leave it in the wife's capable hands..

Sweet, you may be on the home straight. Id still lay off the feed and leave the system alone. Maybe throw a few pellets in a few days or so.

Trout can go a couple of weeks without feed so no harm in doing so, it will give the system and fish time to settle.

p.s. how hard is the next 9 days going to be for you??

It's quite hard I will admit. Especially when the seedlings are doing so well.

I honestly thought that the health of the fish would effect them more. Hu wrong again...!

I'm away for 9 days now, so I'll see how things are when I return.

Hey Matt

listen to everything Bunson and Charlie say.

I had similar problems with my system (read not cycling my system properly before adding too many trout). Check this out. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12813

From my newbie's eyes, it looks like you've got ~500L of fishtank water and ~400L of growbed media?

If you don't understand cycling, here's a quote direct from bunson. "During this time, you will experience a build up of ammonia (which is toxic to fish) followed by a build up of nitrites (which is also toxic to fish) finally followed by the desired build of nitrates as the ammonia and nitrites fall to almost zero levels." (Again, thanks bunson ) FYI I've had my system running for over two months and my nitrates still are maxed out at 160ppm, but the ammonia and nitrite are playing the game. I've got 8x 20-30cm trout and 9x marron in 700L of 'cycled' water with my plants going gangbusters.

Sorry to put a downer on it, but speaking from experience, I don't think this year's trout harvest will be as successful as you may hope. Hopefully get the system cycled in time for the summer barramundi harvest

Good luck and keep us posted

Only have 3 survives left, they are the 3 smallest of the lot. The wife is feeding them every second day now and she reakons they are breaking the surface pretty rapidly. The little buggers are probably hungry.

That is a very useful link thanks Dean.

I will say that I too was recommended to put the fish in the very next day after planting. Thought I may have needed to let the system cycle first. Not that I knew what cycle actually meant. Now I have more of an idea thanks to BYAP and everyone else here.

I will be home on Thursday, so I will do a water test as it has been a week since I did the last one and see if I have any changes.

Salt was added and fish were not fed for over 4 days to be safe.

Sorry to hear that Coastal

Being a new system and with out any water test results i would suggest holding off the feed until you get home to test. The trout will survive without any food for a bit. Trout are a messy fish as it is. Having such a small volume of water will only amplify this.

We can get these 3 through mate

Worst comes to worst, you can use charlie carp to finish the cycling process until barra season.

Cheers rsevs3.

When you say such small volume of water, are you referring to my system or in general as a rue of thumb with an IBC??

I head home Thursday night, so I will be giving you some water results to help me out with.

Thursday test

Ph: 7.2
High Ph : 7.4
Amonia: 0.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 3.0

Can n e 1 elaborate?

Not sure of your question.... the readings look fine... ontknow:

Youre still at the very start of the cycling process, right? Have you had a nitrite reading other than zero?

Your three remaining fish aren't producing enough waste on their current feeding routine to facilitate cycling in the current rush, so consider gradually increasing the food to as much as they will eat in a few minutes, twice per day, or even more frequently if they'll take it. Monitor your ammonia carefully. If the increased feeding doesn't produce an ammonia kick, then you will have to VERY CAREFULLY add some source ammonia, without killing the fish! Use some dilute Charlie Carp, add a little, wait an hour, test, then add some more if needed. You may only need 5-10mL per 1000L to register some ammonia, so be very careful. See if you can get the ammonia to a "reasonable" level, taking into account TAN toxicity, pH and temperature. Or, simply wait as your system will eventually cycle with only three fish, or add a few more fish (but then you could be introducing new diseases or parasites, or adding stress etc).

Once you have some ammonia or if you just be patient and wait, the good bacteria will grow and you'll see a rise in the nitrites, then after a period these will fall as the nitrates start to increase. From there, it's a simple matter to manage the cycling process by controlling the amount of ammonia through feeding and supplementation, preparing for excess nitrites by maintaining 1-2ppt salt, preparing for nitrates by planting out enough plants, and finally, careful monitoring. There's lots written about the entire cycling process, gives you something to research whilst you wait for your system.