Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I must have got some chemical contamination into the tank that killed most of the original goldies and then the sp's. I thought I had cleaned it and then left it dry for long enough but obviously I hadn't. That is why I am not using the original tank (IBC) for the next version.

The goldies from BigMick where never in this system for that reason. They where always going to go in their own setup.

I know how you must feel DT. It takes a lot of effort (planning, getting bits and pieces, putting it together) to set up an AP system, it is not a good feeling when it all goes wrong. Not to mention the suffering of the fish...

Nova

mmm... well if the system was perfect those fishies would have been happy and growing getting fat and then you eat them save the goldies.
Apparently we feel the pain for the fish who don't feel pain at all...
Ducks for cover!!!

Is this true, I've heard that they don't BUT I'm not a fish.
When fishing I dispatch fish usually with a iki jimi spike( for big ones) and cut through the gills/throat for smaller fish.
Maybe this is a personal preference as my dad showed me these techniques when I was younger?

Off track a bit but would like to know

I have heard the same...don't know the answer
and always us an iki.

I always try to sever the spinal cord quickly, then complete the cut to remove the head. I never learned to use an iki, but that makes sense, too. I believe fish feel pain. They have a nervous system, after all. I don't think they have the emotional response that we do.

Quick death also prevent wiggling while cleaning.

I've not killed a fish before (strange i know), well, not intentionaly!

my preference will be to put it in ice water then do with it what i may after its "gone"

I read somewhere once about the ice water causing pain as ice crystals form in their gills, but i don't believe it.......... an ice water slurry is at 0C and will not freeze water.

unless people were using an ice/water/salt mixture.

NERD ALERT!

I love physics, people are aware that salt "melts" ice, what some don't realise is that the resultant water is LOWER in temp than the ice.

latent heat is coverted into specific heat.

Try it for yourself, crush up some ice (snow) and make a slurry with water. (it will be 0C)

mix in salt until the ice melts. measure the temp.

Sorry for the side track, i found it really interesting when i learned that.

I won't have any problem killing the fish. From toddler to my mid twenties I used to fish all the time - it is something sadly I no longer have the time for and there are bugger all around these days too.

When my boys get a bit older I must find the time to go fishing with them, it is great fun for kids (and adults). I bought a canoe on ebay last year with the intention of getting into some rivers and some freshwater dams for some fishing action with the kids. Must get organised with that

Steve-
The farenheit temperature system was developed based on 0 = the lowest temperature he could achieve = ice+salt+water, and 100 = body temperature - (he must have had a fever since normal body temp is 98.6).
Celsius is based on state change of distilled water at 1atm.

didn't know that!

There appear to be at least 5 different, contradictory, stories to how fahrenheit was developed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit

(doesn't include my favourite - he made a thermometer and drew some lines on it and wrote 0 to 100)

These are my latest thought on my new setup. The following is taken from a post I made here regarding Monya's second system.

A couple of thoughts I had (I have been thinking on my next setup a bit lately) that may be useful. Your block slopes right? Can you use gravity to flow the water out of the tank into the beds like MF does (here)? I think it should be possible to run multiple tanks, all overflowing into one smaller tank (the top of which is level with the top of the main tanks) which houses the pump (or gravity flows into the grow beds). Water then flows back into all of the tanks and will overflow between the tanks to even the water levels if needed.

I have been trying to think of a way to keep more than one type of fish in a single system (less pumps, plumbing etc) and that was what I came up with. In my next setup the tank will be the lowest point, one pump to the grow beds, gravity feed to the sump, gravity feed to the fish tank. I am hoping to keep goldfish in the sump and silver's in the main tank. I would also like to incorporate yabbies (multiple tanks for breeding and growing) but I think due to space limitations I will need another pump from the fish tank for this.

Nova