Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i recently installed 2 seperate systems and with 1000l tanks. i have silver perch fingerling in one tank and Marron in the other. last weekend i planted a varity of seedlings which i treaded and washed the roots in seeweed solution. over the past week i keep finding dead fingerling and marron in the tank. any idea what i can do to save my fisf stock???

What are your water parameters. Have you been testing it?

no i havnt testes the water. water comes from a rainwater tank. do i need to test the water for PH levels???

Ph, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite are likely your issues. Hold off on feeding for right now. Pick up some pool salt along with your test kit. You probably need to salt your system up to 1-3 parts per thousand, but do not move foward until you have tested your parameters.

On second thought, salt up anyways.

Hi Seppel, I'm in Cubiaco too so may be able to give a hand/drop by and have a look. How long ago did you set up the systems, and have you been feeding much?

I find using rain water drops the ph of my system a fair bit, not because it is low ph itself (though it is below 7), but because it provides no buffering capability to help counter the nitrification process.

Matt

Looking for some advice/help. We have been losing 1 trout every few days recently. Our system has been going for 8 months now and we have 15 Silver perch + had[u][/u] 10 trout fingerlings put in - in June.

We are constantly struggling to keep Ph levels down and are using Hydrochloric Acid in small doses - every few days to bring the levels down. It is a constant battle.

Any suggestions/ advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Gorker....

What sort of growbed media do you have?

We are using clayballs and have a 1000 litre fish tank with a 175 ltr (approx) sump tank and two grow beds - beds are approx 70% capacity of veg at this stage... 1 metre square x about 500mm deep. Ph is going up to 8.4 - 8.6 prior to treatment ... then down to 7.6.. in steps over a week.

This morning I have a dead Silver .. the Ph is back up to 8.3 - can anyone provide any suggestions before I run out of fish?

big ph swings will stress your fish, stop messing with the ph! it will drop over time..

So i recently started a small aquaponics system in my house by a south facing sliding glass door. Not a perfect system but plants are doing good considering conditions. However my fish are dieing. I got 6 tilapia fingerlings a few weeks back and all seemed to survive the ammonia spike and lasted til the ammonia went down to "safe" if not ideal levels.The pH was rather high for a while about 8.8 or so, so I brought it down with a small amount of vinegar. Not sure if this was a good Idea or bad but it seemed to work and the fish were ok for the next week or so now over the past week I've lost one or two every coupl'a days. Now down to one and I am hesitant to put in any more. I dont currently have the cash to get the testing stuff for pH so I'm not sure where thats at right now. But we do have fairly alkaline water here. One problem I do think I have is heat. My heater seems to either have quit or it wont keep up. During the day with the sun the water hits 75* or so but over night gets down to about 62* Fahrenheit (about 24* C and about 17*C) I know that is kinda cold for tilapia but is it too cold or will the fluctuation from night and days temps be doing it? Any help would be appreciated. Hopefully I can get the ph test kit over the next few days.

big fluctuations in temp will stress the fish... as did the ammonia spike.. there will be or already has been a nitrite spike, which can also stress/kill the fish..
how many galllons of growbed do you have? and how big is your ft?
can you find local fish like bluegill? they can handle more extreme temps and are pretty hardy, just be careful with feeding/changing anything until your system is fully cycled
salting to 1ppt will help the fish deal with nitrite poisoning

So i bit the bullet and got the test strips. Ammonia is low but, yes in the middle of a Nitrite spike was very much in danger zone. Bought a second heater we'll see if that helps. Still got one fish. Got roughly 11 sq ft of grow bed about 10-12 inches deep cycles for half an hr then off for an hr. Is about 50 0r 55 gal over all. Salt 1 part per thousand? Directions on salt say 1 teaspoon per ten gal, that about right? I did get some aquarium salt. Water still very alkaline 8.4+. need to worry about that? or will that come down? Reminiscent of my first time w/ aquarium fish. Die off problems to start til I got it figured out.

Oh and the reason I choose Tilapia is I know a guy who raises them. Not sure where to get Bluegill around here I know there are a few fish farms/hatcheries and a few lakes stocked with blue gill so there must be some around just not sure how to get a hold of them. Plus I thought my water might get to hot in the summer when I move them out to a greenhouse (hopefully) for that kind of fish. Could probably get trout but I am not a fan of trout to eat. How would bluegill do if the water got fairly warm?