Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Risky, I'd be using air stones to let chlorine bubble away.
Chemicals and ap baaaad.


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Now I am a little confused. I started the system in the beginning of January and had my 10 little goldfish make it a month, and then added 10 more goldfish in Feb. (the original 10 slowly started dying off 1 every few days. I didnt think much of is since they were little feeder fish.) I thought the system had cycled since it had been running for over 2 months.

Last weekend I added the new fish tank (thats why there is no algae yet). Do you think the system never got cycled to begin with? or since I added the new tap water (about 200L) I need to cycle it again?

I think you're the only one that can answer that (by running some tests). The time to cycle varies quite a bit but probably your system is cycled. Dr Luke was just pointing out that the plants will grow whether the system has cycled or not. The bacteria that process Ammonia to Nitrite and then to Nitrate have to be present in sufficient numbers for the system to be cycled - that's why we test for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. When a system is getting started, we measure these each day to see what's happening so we know when the system is cycled.

Thanks scotty, it makes sense now. I wish I had test kits for everything available. I might try to go to the city tomorrow and see if I can find any.

Thanks again for the help everybody!

I was finally able to get an accurate picture of my water quality as before I only had a really shitty pH test and Nitrite kit available.

I will start with the ammonia. The NH3 levels look to be between 0.0 and 0.25 ppm. I think this is an acceptable range. I know there must be at least some ammonia in the system since I can see fish poop. The next is the nitrite level. The NO2 level looks like it is at 0.0 ppm. I think this is what I want to see. Next are the nitrates. The NO3 level looks to be at 5.0 ppm. It is the second from the top, so I think that is still pretty good. The last is the pH test. My old pH test only measured from 6.0-7.5 so I didn't really know what it was. This test shows my pH is about 8.2! That is very high. I did the gravel and vinegar test when I got my gravel and it didn't bubble, but I must not have looked hard enough for bubbles, or I missed one kind of rock when I scooped a sample out for the test. I tested the tap water and it is high too, but only at around 7.6.

Does this shed any new light on why my fish died? I have heard that tilapia shouldn't have a problem with a pH that high, but will that impact the amount of ammonia that they can handle? Do you think this high pH will have an impact on my pants? Right now I have some lettuce, beans and peas growing.

I was also able to track down some expanded clay online, and it looks like it is pretty cheap. I think I will order some for GB 2 and if my plants in GB1 die I will take that gravel out and replace with expanded clay as well.

It might. The fish should be good with those parameters except possibly for the ammonia levels. If the temperature is high then it's possible that .25 ppm is a toxic level at pH 8.2.



Both pH and Temp will impact the amount of ammonia they can handle.

As far as the plants - The high pH will mainly affect the availability of Iron. The way this shows up for many plants is the leaves turn yellow with darker veins (called - Interveinal cholorsis). Check the charts on the following link for additional information on all your questions.

For material related to all these questions check the charts on this page - http://ibcofaquaponics.com/information/tables-and-charts/

All of those statistics are well within range of tilapia. Perhaps there was a disease in your batches.

If all those are within a reasonable range then the DO levels might have been trouble. I guess I will go ahead and look at getting an airstone

Well according to the ammonia, pH and temperature relationship chart, at 24degC (which I googled Taiwan might be experiencing right now) and at pH of 8.2, ammonia is toxic at 0.26ppm. The higher the temperature or pH of 8.2 that your system might have, 0.25ppm could be a problem.


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Not forgetting that you are testing this now, ammonia levels could have been higher before.


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All very good points. I think now I am gonna stick with the cheap goldfish i can find around here and work on getting expanded clay to replace the gravel I am using now. Hopefully that will lower my pH and by filling up the second grow bed and floating raft system I should be able to clean the water more quickly. Hopefully that will help with the pH and ammonia levels.

From what I am seeing, your system is still cycling. Quit messing around with it. I am not sure if you understand the nitrogen cycle very well, if you start replacing your gravel, you will start your system cycling again because the bacteria grows mainly in the gravel. In addition, as part of the nitrogen cycle, it naturally reduces the pH of the system too. So in short, you are not helping yourself. If anything, get your second growbed up and running with expanded clay now. Do not disturb anything else. Cycling a system properly is always a waiting game.


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Unless you removed the chloramine with a dechlor chemical, that's probably what killed the Tilapia. 200L is allot of fresh water in a system that small. None of the other levels seem suspect to me and the dead fish doesn't look diseased to me.

Tilapia can handle chloramines. Experience talking here.

Hi,
I had a similar situation occur and am also raising Talapia. The first mistake I made was to add fish to my system before it cycled, I thought it was cycled but it wasn't. I ended up killing most of my first 60 fish only 6 made it. I restocked and did fine for awhile after It did cycle for sure, then my water quality appeared to get cloudy but I wasn't sure, it didn't look to bad. Then I started to have a few fish die here and there every few days, I didn't see any markings on the dead fish. After a few weeks, I started to see red markings on the fish, It took a while but I figured it out. I was over feeding my fish and was overstocked. The tings I did to correct my system where.
1. Harvested larger fish.
2. Removed any slow or sick looking fish.
3. Salted my system to 1 PPT for the first time ever.(very important, do it)
4. Slowed feeding from 3 times a day to 2 times a day and less food.
5. Added a additional swirl filter to my system.
6. Removed my lid from my tank. ( not sure if this did anything but I enjoy viewing the fish more now)
7. Started making and spraying compost teas on my beds and plants. Amazing difference, also, I now add water to my system by watering the beds instead of just adding it to the sump tank. I noticed that by watering the beds the knats I had,are virtually gone, plus I think it's good to run some fresh water through the top stones on the bed that don't usually get wet.

My systems are both recovered and the fish are doing great and the plants are really kicking in now, I'm coming up on about 9 months since my systems first cycled and have been running. The difference now then in the first months is amazing the system will stabilize just don't push it.

Another note the high PH could be from anarobic area in your bed or filter system, I was running an external canister filter to my DWC and my PH started to rise to high 7's. I cleaned out the filter which had a smell to the bottom of it when I opened it and since then the PH has dropped back to normal. Get a digital PH meter, you can find them online for not to much.