Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Worms, it might be a good idea to buy a bottle of water ager/chlorine remover, most water suppliers are changing over to chloramine and it doesn't break down quickly....can be found at any aquarium shop

Just an update, all is well still...salt seems to have done the trick as far as de stressing and toxifying nitrite which lost to be around .35ppm. I've been doing some reading but still alittle unsure, with nitrite now registering am i right to asume ammonia levels will stabilise? afew fish still flashing

got a floating raft happening today with hot mint and lettuce, watercress tomorrow. thanks for your help everyone, this website is invaluable

Worms, as the cycle goes ammonia rise first, then ammonia converted to nitrite, you should see a leveling then drop inammonia as your nitrites rise. Then ammonia will hit zero or close to, and nitrites will be converted to nitrates the magic plant food. So to answer your question in as many words as possible LOL, yes, ammonia levels will stabilise, assuming you don't do any radical mega feeding of the fish! Sounds like you are well on your way!

well it hasn't been smooth sailing of late silvers are still flashing and I seem to be losing one every other day! cycle is nearly over :

nitrite:0.25
ammonia:0.25
nitrate:5ppm

I checked town water ...no chloramine
on the up side the plant are starting to take off.

Im thinking up the anti on the salt concentration?

local aquarium shop recommend formalin malchite solution?

give em an instant dose of around 4 parts per thousand salt worms, ie 4kg's per 1000 litresb see how that goes. do they have any spots or marks on them?

no marks that i can see monya, i've inspected the dead ones gills and they seem alright (not that i know what to look for)

what was your PH worms? and are there any other noticeable signs, like them staying near the water surface, gulping?

steve, the ph is 7.2, i've got a 85ltr/min pump going 24/7 so i think we can rule DO out. basically the effected fish start out lathargic not swimming around or eating, as they get worse they move to the surface. its the more lively ones that flash. I just put 10kg of dissolved salt in the tank as it already had 6kg in it, this should put the salinity at about 5ppt.

strange. very strange. what temp u running?

Worms, did you end up taking down that shade cloth sail???

Still been getting regular rain up your way???

I took the shade cloth down so its not the cause rup, have to get back to you about the temp steve. more dead fish this arvo! time for one last effort to save em....drained the tank down to 1300ltr and dosed the salt up to 10-12ppt. gona leave it like this for an hour then top the tank back up with tank water (thanks to my neighbour). not cycling at the moment. Rup, we got 100mm last night, water didn't drain into tank though as i'd redirected it

fingers crossed this works not sure if hr is the right lenght of time to leave them in the 10ppt

i think half hour is what i used, but you should be right

hi all,

Just an update, problem has persisted despite my best efforts which leads me to believe the gravel is contaminated. I bought 8 more bathtubs (40$ ) the other day which i'll add to the end of the rack, and fill the lot (16 bath tubs) with new gravel. Im going with a 10mm washed blue metal, has anyone tried this stuff? looks the goods to me, very clean and cheap to boot....36$/t.
TT's coming around to help wash and load, anyone else keen? FREE BEER!!!

some of our beds are blue metal, everything is going fine, sorry I don't drink beer

just have a look where geelong is on the map worms. it's more up than around, i gotta nose bleed just thinking bout it but those bathtubs are a big carrott!