Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Two more floaters this evening. Nitrite is less than 1 ppm probably 0.5. Nitrate is 5-10ppm and no ammonia. Ph near 7.0. Temperature is in the upper 70s.

My scope worked ok and I didn't see any fish on the bottom. It's tough to say with 100% certainty.

Based on the encouraging chemistry, I put in a couple pinches of flakes. Fish went nuts, which is a good sign. I plan to not feed much until nitrites come down and I'm more sure nobody else plans to die.

100ppm is way too much salt. You want to dose in the 1-3 ppt.

100 ppm is 0.1 ppt

D'oh! You are right. I got units backwards. Sorry about that... Glad to hear system is looking better!

Now it looks like some of my plants might have a deficiency. Below is a photo of a stunted zucchini with small curled leaves.

Strawberries are giving good fruit now but un ripe fruit is small and misshapen and new blossoms shrivel and dry up.

I know I have about 10-20 ppm phosphate and 10 ppm nitrate. I've added a little potassium and calcium hydroxide for ph. I added about 1/2 teaspoon of chelated iron and Epsom salts last weekend. That should cover macro nutrients. Do I need more of one of these?

@scott_dc - Hi, you can take a look at the attached link. It is very informative.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25056

Regards

Added some worm tea and iron chelate. Hope that will help.

I've lost a couple more fish. Water chemistry is fine. No nitrites. No ammonia. Ph about 7.0.

Temperature about 68f or 20 c.

A couple pics below of what they look like just prior to death. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Scott, did you ever find out what the nodules where? I had some on a dead catfish myself only at the base of its top fin.

Tom

I never found out what it was. I suspected ich but I have no experience and am just guessing. I found that ich can't survive in 0.5 ppt salt, I salted to 0.6, to provide a little extra due to rain forcast, and to stay as low as possible because I didn't want to kill my strawberries.

I salted all at once, which was probably a mistake as the fish stopped eating for about a day. I probably should've introduced the salt more slowly, e.g., over the course of a couple days.

I lost a couple more fish over the next few days but I kept watch and pulled them out before they died completely. I suspect they were already weak before I salted.

I also have my pump running nearly constantly to provide as much aeration and filtering as posisble. It shuts off every few hours for 30 mins to let the growbed drain.

For the last week or so, fish have been eating well and seem happy.

Mild winter helped my procrastination. Greenhouse cover up.

I put 5 5 gallon buckets and a 14 gallon tub inside for thermal storage.
I have a 300 w pond heater to prevent freezing.
I also ordered a self regulating trace heater to keep GB warm.

Total of a few hundred watts maximum won't get too warm but I'm hoping to be able to grow some cold hardy plants.

My biggest problem is that I haven't planted anything yet.

So far, greenhouse working as well as I could have expected. Overnight temps have been as low as low teens F (minus 10 C) and the house has not dropped below freezing.

Direct sown seeds starting to sprout.


This weekend, it held up to a couple feet of snow and high winds (50 cm snow).

The plastic clips popped off when an avalanche of snow fell on it from the house roof above. When I heard the crash of snow, I was expecting much worse.

Expansion has begun.

For new grow beds, considering filling bottom half with lava rock to save money and top half with hydroton. Does anyone have a reason why that's a bad idea?

It's not bad but they'll eventually wind up mixed together.