Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Always a good idea to post pics if you can. Helps us to see what we are dealing with and to see if there are any obvious problems.

pictures of the fish? or of the setup?

Man, I am so depressed. I have been working up to this moment of getting the fish for months. I think they aren't going to make it. there are only 5-6 swimming normally now, the rest are all laying on the bottom gasping.






I wish I knew how to get the oxygen into the water faster.

Have you tested your water for PH, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates? It may not be an oxygen problem!

+1 what LJohnSaw said

Pictures of both would be good. I have my doubts about it being oxygen and we really need more information to go on. Some information about the fish, the transport conditions, how long they were in transit, things like that are important. How big is the fish tank and if it's an IBC what was in it?

If you have any water other than well water available I'd take some of the ones that are the worst off and move them into a bucket of this with some aeration just to see if they improve.

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oh holy heck. remember when I said I tested my water and all my values were low or non-existant except the mineral content? well, Scotty, your post got me thinking...all this time and I didn't notice...my PH was one of those and it suddenly occured that it shouldn't be....low! it should be more centered



I went and got my ph testing kit and it was all the way orange...so about 4. How could I have missed something so very basic! (pun not intended) I put a bazzilion capfuls of base in there, testing after each one and raised it to about 6 or 6.5.

Oh, gosh. I hope the shock of it doesn't kill the remaining fish. should I take them out?

It might do them in but they were goners if left in water with that pH so probably not much you can do. I'd be tempted to split those that are still alive, if you have another source of water. It's not uncommon for the pH to drop back down some time after the adjustment and this would just be insurance against them all dying if it's not too late. I'd also check the water you adjusted, later today, just to see what's happening.

Probably didn't do much for the biofilter with the pH problem but at least the fish are small. Hope some of them pull through

If the well water is normally in the 4's you'll need to adjust the top up water pH before adding it into the main AP loop. This can also be a good time to aerate the water so you can kill two birds with one stone.
The preferred pH range for Bluegill is around 6.5 to 8.5. Probably 6.5 to 7.2 is a good place to shoot for in the long haul but try and get the pH right before adding the water to the system.

I just cant believe I forgot about PH.

what a friggin Moron.

I am going to go hide under a rock now.

(but I take your point about continuing to check it...I have very hard water so that will try to buffer it)

okay, now here is a mystery: I just tested my tap water and it is about 6.0
why was the water in my aquaponics system 4.0!!!???!!! I remember a while ago testing it and it wasn't anything shocking. I think I added a capful of base at the time.

I am using hydroton...it is supposed to be ph neutral. has to be something else.

Yeah, something is seriously wrong there.

Is your tap water from the well? Sometimes water pH changes with exposure to air (usually it goes up not down). It's also possible but unlikely that some residue was left in the tube from a previous test (it's always good to rinse them out when you're done). Hydroton shouldn't be the problem. Try a side by side comparison, water with Hydroton after sitting a few hours vs same water without Hydroton. I'd check the pH on that same water right when you fill the containers and see if it changes after coming out of the tap.

Forgot to ask, is your tap water being filtered?

Yeah... tap water was taken from same source as the water I put in the aqua system.

and yes, we do have a sediment filter. looks like a spool of twine

sounds like I have some experimenting to do...

any suggestions welcome!!!

the remaining 6 fish seem okay. and 6 is actually almost a perfect amount to grow out in this small a system. ( I was going to put the rest into a pond we are building or give them away ) I will not get my hopes up though until they are alive in the morning.

You know my suggestions plus check the other parameters - and keep your eye on the system pH

I'll keep my fingers crossed for the fish

Cheers

Been laying awake thinking about this and I am pretty sure I just crashed my system with too many fish. not enough gas exchange,Tthe co2 build-up caused the plummet in PH. Sound plauible?

I was only planning on putting 6-8 fish in the tank but the minimum they would sell them was 25 I thought I had more time to find new homes for them.

if so, harsh lesson learned.

I use a spray feature or dome ,call it what you like,I will post a picture .I use one of these in my trout tank in summer,it helps keep it cool to .My trout have survived the worst of the summer.But if you have a bit of pvc and a drill the spray bar may be your best option.

Alkaline well water may be hard to incorporate into an AP system. It is almost certainly the cause of the white mineral deposits on your hydroton, and can make pH management pretty difficult. If your well has high flow and you're not averse to wasting a lot of water (or can run it to landscaping or somewhere that even higher minerals won't harm anything) you could dilute it with reverse-osmosis water to a more reasonable mineral content.