Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have a new 260L FT with a media filled 85L grow bed, another 85L grow bed that just has water in it now (no media added yet) both grow beds drain via bell siphon to a 160L sump tank. The water is them pumped to the FT with a spray bar to aerate the water and give it a weak current.

pH: 7.0-7.5 (shitty pH test kit, no measurement between those two, and doesnt measure over 7.5, but all I can find so far)

Nitrites - less than measurable levels.

I am not able to find any test kits for anything else yet.

The system has been up and running for a while, I had goldfish to cycle it, but they slowly died off. I have lettuce and beans and peas growing very well, but the last two days the lettuce started to wilt. The lettuce was growing great for over a month until now.

I got 5 1-2 inch tilapia from a guy who also has an AP set up. The fish were doing fine for 1 week and a half, and then this morning they were all dead.

The dead fish looked fine, no redness around the gills or anything. Their mouths were open.

I think it could be a few things:

1. over feeding - there was some food at the bottom of the tank, and a lot of fish food colored poop mixed with the normal brown color.

2. Toxins - I had to use plumbers glue to secure a few connections between the grow beds because the pressure was too much and they were leaking. Maybe this could be why the lettuce is now dying as well?

3. weather - it has recently gotten much hotter here. Could that sudden increase in heat caused them to die? Does this explain the lettuce as well?

any other ideas or advice on what I should do?

Thanks

this is the overall system


this is the spray bar into the FT. Do you think that is enough aeration?

[img][/img]

here is one of the dead fish

Could be a low DO problem. What is your pump size and pumping rate?

I am not quite sure what the pump rate is. It is a pretty small pump. I cant understand the chinese and the wife is no help in traslating. the model number is a something "800+" I am guessing it is in liters. It drained my 260L FT (probably had around 200L in it) in around 15-20 mins.

I was thinking it may be a DO problem but dont have any way of testing that. Im not sure if the pic can help anyone see how much aeration the FT is getting. The sump gets very aerated when the GB's drain with the bell siphons, but does that DO get carried over when it gets pumped into the FT?

I might look at researching some aeration ideas tomorrow.

thanks mattyoga

The eyes look a bit cloudy to me. It might be wise to salt up.

Your water is so clear and almost blue it looks like it's right out of the tap - is it?

You mentioned it recently got much hotter - any idea what your water temperature is and what it was previously? Is the fish tank in the Sun part of the day? I'm thinking small tank with large temperature fluctuations.

I'd wager on the last two comments being pretty close. I did some googling, and there is a good chance chloramines are in your water. Which take some time to come out of the water. Are you using any sort of declorinator?

Also I'd wager temp swings are a large factor. I did another google, and it said your weather went from 14'C (which is a little cold for tilapia, from what I read anyway) - 29'C. You don't have a massive volume of water, which can cause bigger temp swings.

I'm also curious if your cycling worked first time around, or if the goldies died before they did the job?

+1. Water is way to clear blue to be a cycled system. Especially when the fish tank is of a clear almost see through tank, you would expect green algae growth by the time cycling is done.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This is just what i would do.
Drain system, refill system, add a air stone and air pump, wait a week,
Add fish, Grow plants.

I'd also be painting the containers or wrapping to stop algae sucking the life out of such a small setup


PS: strongly doubt plumbers glue will do anything.. I accidentally knocked an entire jar into one of my growbeds without any effects.

The fish tank has only been there for a week, so hasnt gotten much algae growth yet. The sump tank has algae growing on the sides. I started cycling in January and the goldfish lasted for the first month or so and then were getting beat up pretty well by the grow beds draining. I have lettuce that has been growing for over a month, and my peas and beans are growing very well. I am guessing it should be cycled if the plants have been able to grow for so long, or am I wrong about that?

I am leaning towards the temp swing and the tap water. i was going to buy the chlorinator but the guy at the fish shop told me I didn't need it. I will wait a week and go get some more gold fish and see how well they do. I think I will have to get an air stone as well.

You are wrong about the plants growing well indicating that you are cycled. This is not necessarily correct. Some plants will grow just the for a month or so in a jug full of tap water.....that doesn't mean you are not cycled though.

There is a debate on here about dechlorinators, but I'm all for them. It also depends on your tap water, plain chlorine will evaporate away in a day with a bubbler, if they are treating your water with chloramines (a far more stable form of chlorine, can take a month to break down, quicker with UV & water movement, but not sure how quick), then in my opinion you need dechlorinators. Check the local gov water website, it should tell you for sure.

Even if you just have chlorine in your water, make sure it sits in another container to top up before adding it. It'll burn the fish, and kill off the bacteria your system needs to run.

I would not suggest using dechlorinators if you are intending to grow fish meant for human consumption. But I guess if one does drugs, smoke or overconsume alchohol, then really a bit of dechlorinator is not going to make much difference to the risk of affecting the human body anyways.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I emailed the place I get my dechlorinators from, asking if their product was safe for fish meant for human consumption, and they said it was completely safe (along with the MDSD). I use 15mL per 300L of top up water, which goes into 1700L of fish tank water.