Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

....or....
put in enough of the hose so that when it is full of water it will drop below the level of the water (when you pull it out - possibly a metre/yard),
place your finger/thumb over the hose end (so that it can't suck in air),
quickly pull part of the hose out of the tank (so that the water in the hose is now below the tank level),
run the hose outside, keeping one end in the tank at all times under the water and the other blocked with finger/thumb and below water tank level,
release thumb and water will then start to siphon out of tank and through the hose (no rain coat required - sorry Janet just took your sprinkler out of the AP action again)

clear as mud?

Yeah, but my way works for leaking waterbeds upstairs. Ran the hose right out the bathroom window.

even more disastrous when you work out you haven't got a waterbed

Anyway your idea sounds like more fun

to be honest, I don't think the way I described siphoning would work (efficiently ) - I like the idea of a wetsuit for protection

Thanks for your ideas on how to remove the sand.

The sand has settled on the bootom of the barrel. I have decided to leave it there as it does not appear to interfere with anything and it looks more natural than an blue platic bottom. Mind you I don't know that fish car about looks.

Tomorrow I will test water quality. This time I will test nitrate and nitrite. I want to know if the system has cycled or if the absense of amonia is due to a combination of low metabolism and a lot of water (for the quantity/size of fish).

I am expecting no nirate or nitrite yet. We shall see.

Today I did a water test.

PH 7.5
NH3 0
KH 70 ppm
GH 120 ppm
NO2 0
NO3 0

Humm, nothing was happening. I figured that the fish were too cold. Therefore I went and bought a 300 watts water heater.

While installing the heater, I noticed a floater, then I noticed that the water was all grey/green.

I tried reducing the amount of water in the barrel, but the water was still grey. So I decided to do a 100% water change. The 9 surviving fish are in a bucket right now waiting for the chlorine in their new water to evaporate. I used this opportunity to remove the sand at the bottom of the barrel.

Tomorrow I'll put the fish back in the barrel.

is that ammonia 3 , 3.0 or 30 ?

The amonia was 0 - unoticeable.

so what is the NH reading for? Sorry, just looked hard again NH3 (doh)

Have you got aeration in the tank?

Be sure that when you transfer your fish, the pH and temperature are matched between the bucket and the tank. Then set and turn on the heater and warm the fish up that way. Once they get warm enough, start to feed slowly since you probably don't have much bacteria yet.

The fish are back in their home. One fish did not make it back. I was lucky considering that I did not check the ph - I read Janet's post too late. I focussed on having a close temperature match

The water is being warmed up slowly right now. I am going to keep less water in the system since it is easier to maintain and keep warm.

I did have an air bubbler on the ready in the bucket; but, since the fish did not seem to enjoy the noise and did not seem to be strugling looking for oxygen, I kept it off.

Even in the bucket, these 9 fish still had way more room than the fish I had when I was a kid (9 fish in about 8 litres). Mind you I was very young then so my memories might not be quite right.

The water is warmer now and it shows. The fish are more lively and they have started to eat. They are more fun to watch than when they were keeping quiet preserving energy. I am looking forward to the water test this week-end.

I try not to feed too much. The grow bed is still in the cold. It may still take time before the system cycles.

Some of you might have read the comment I made yesterday in another thread about setting myself up to make mistakes.

Well I made a big one today.

Somehow my 300 watts water heater found itself partly outside of the water. It was still intact. I should have unplugged it and waited for it to cool down. That's no what I did. I just poored water to fill the tank. You guessed it, the temperature differential was too much for the glass and it broke. This one week old heater is now junk. GRRRR The most madening part is that I understand so well the physics of what has happened - I could have saved it if only I had just stopped and thought!

No more water heater for me. I am now heating the whole garage - and the barrel with it - until I find a more reliable solution to all this cold weather. It will be interesting to look at this month electricity bill.

Maybe I should move to the carrabeans.

There are 'titanium' heaters that have a metal casing instead of glass. They are better for withstanding temperature shock and aggressive fish. I also use completely submersible heaters and place them at the bottom of the tank. If that ends up out of water, you have bigger problems than just the heater.

Going somewhere tropical sounds good. You know you'd just have different problems there, though. Water would get too hot, or something. Then again, maybe we should just all go visit CG....hmmm...

Next AP meet at CG's House! Yea!