Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Oh, one other note.. I have not hooked my filter back up to my system yet after putting the permanent beds in place... I decided since I was getting stuff started to put in the raft beds I needed to clean the Dwc out... It had a lot of crud built up in the far end of the bed past the drain.. apparently I should have put the drain at the very end but oh well, I will just siphon the crap out at the end of each season. I might put a couple of small powerhead in the bed to help push it towards the drain which means it will end up back in the fish tank, but maybe the second trip through it might wind up in the media beds more rather than the Dwc (or maybe I just need to finish putting the filter back into the system so it doesn't get to the beds)

I've removed 4 dead tilapia tonight. I decided I should run a test to see if I could tell what is going on, 0 ammonia, but nitrites are up to 0.25, and nitrates are between 5 to 10 is my guess. Looks like cleaning the Dwc out might have actually caused nitrites to spike a little, not sure why, I wouldn't think there would have been much for bacteria in the dwc, and I removed a ton of waste by siphoning it out that would have otherwise become ammonia and nitrites, but something is killing fish all of the sudden so has to be it I'm assuming... I added a couple handfuls of calcium chloride because it was what I had.

First time I've ran a test in probably a year. Had to look up the instructions I forgot how long I had to wait for the color to develop

I cleaned 16 tilapia this morning. The biggest we're about 9 inches and 9 to 10 ounces. The small ones were in between down to one which was too small to bother with so I tossed it in the chicken coop for the chickens to eat.

I think this brings me to about 28 total that I've cleaned or have died, I think I put over 100 in the greenhouse so still a bit to go.

They are certainly beautiful fat healthily looking fish,mine never looked like this they were always flat bellied,even though they gorged everything I fed them.

For dead they look great. Reminds me of Facebook healthcare poll I saw yesterday, first question: Are you dead? yes or no? I never got to the second question, lol.

The big ones are definitely beauties, big fat fish gave nice filets... the small ones are a waste, but I grew out everything this year because I was too excited about hatching my own tilapia... next year I will grade the fish and only grow out the fastest growing fish. I will try to grade them twice before they get moved out to the greenhouse next year... grade them at about 30 days and cull off the below average fish then grade again at 60 days and cull off or sell the below average fish out of the second grading. I'm sure I'll have at least 60 days of raising them indoors before I move them out to the greenhouse in the spring.

I tested my bluegill tank indoors yesterday and had pretty high ammonia so I went to town and bought some bacteria in a bottle (there is one brand I've found which I trust to be more than snake oil because it actually lists off the species of bacteria rather than just saying a 'bacteria blend'). I moved a filter floss from my tilapia breeder tank to the bluegill tank to try and boost the bacteria population too, but this morning still high ammonia so I dumped in another bottle of bacteria.

The channel cat tank in the greenhouse had high ammonia yesterday and the AP system had elevated nitrites... I decided I needed to get the channel cat tank plumbed in to the AP. The existing drain on the right side of the tank is at a height that I was able to plumb it and connect to an open T that I had left in the system where I was dosing anything I added that way it went through the beds before making it to the fish tank... well then I got looking at it and it looked like the water level would either overflow the back left corner of the tank before it went through my drain (tank not sitting perfectly level, and the guy didn't cut the top off quite straight). On top of that I thought there was a small risk that stuff could go from the 200 IBC and flow back to the 330 IBC (not likely because the flow rate is higher through the 330 IBC, but the drain would be higher, so it is possible). So I went to town and got some 1.5" PVC because I had a 1.5" bulkhead available (everything else in my system is 2" bulkheads). I ended up adding a hole on the LH side of the 200 IBC down lower so there is only about 160-175 gallons of water max to keep the water level down so it is less likely for fish to jump out. I just made it drain directly in to the small grow bed next to it instead of plumbing it in with my other supply line. Then for water going in to the 200 IBC I redid the drain from my NFT to drain in to the 200 IBC, but it is only about 40 gallons per hour running through the tank so it will take about 4 hours to turn the water over... I tried bumping the flow up by slowing the flow to the 330 IBC and it overflowed my NFT tubes because the pool noodles that I am using block off a lot of flow through the 3" NFT tubes. So for now 40gph is going to have to be enough... it's gotta be better than not having any flow through the tank! I went out and tested the water again this morning and now that the whole thing is tied together it looks like still a slight amount of ammonia but nitrites appear to have been cleaned up (although I only tested the 200IBC, didn't draw from the 330 IBC... but took 16 fish out of the 330IBC should reduce the waste needing processed too).

I still need to pick up two 90's and a cap for the 1.5" PVC to do the SLO in the 200 IBC, I forgot about those when I was at the store, so for now I am just surface skimming using a pipe with saw blade cuts in it, then I had a reducer so I reduced it to 1" which I had a 1" cap to keep the catfish from getting sucked up... so I'll get the fittings today and make the SLO tonight.

I had another dead tilapia this morning and another last night, so tonight I pulled another 14 fish out to clean. 3 of them were too small to waste time on, I cleaned the other 11 and put them in the freezer.

I think that makes about 44 that I have taken out now. Should be another 60+ in there, I will have to go put my GoPro and lights in to see if I can get video because I was struggling to catch any tonight.

Population check to make sure there are still tilapia in my tank... Yup still a few... And they look to be ok size so must be I'm just catching the dumb little ones and the smart big ones stay out of the way... I'll catch you my pretties... And your little dog too!

Not the best video, but that is 2" PVC in the bottom so should be decent size fish from the look of them.

Makes me want some instead of Koi. Although with all of the animal problems we have been having, sound like it may be the only thing left?!?

All three horses have bad wounds on legs from their outing earlier in the month.
Dog sliced open underside of belly by left rear leg
Neurotic dog going nuts over the slightest rumble
Cats were not eating and problems on both ends
Rooster trying to mate with momma in greenhouse, had 8 chicks, but 4 sought cover under film of greenhouse and were killed
Mice, mice, and more mice this year.
And I sure there is more, but many after vet calls with premium vet bills (but I would still take his rates over the 24 hour emergency type services.

Adam

just posted a new thread to see if there are other scuba divers here that I shared this video in, but I'll put it here too for my followers... I shot this last night during a night dive at a local lake.

How cold is the water?

Coldest I saw was 66F at 26ft, night dives we stay pretty shallow just checking weed beds to see what kind of fish we find.

Eerie but awesome dive. Actually one of my favorite videos right now. So what kind of fish were you seeing? You have a seriously cool hobby going on there Rob. Subscribed.

Brian the smallest fish were bluegills, the biggest fish were northern pike, and towards the end there were a couple medium sized ones that were crappie or specs depending on who you ask.

In the second video the huge schools that were all over us was smelt. The fish I caught in my hand was a large mouth bass, there was a northern pike with half of a rock bass sticking out it's mouth, and then lots of bluegills.
I'll have to watch it again and see what else..my oh can't forget the crayfish/crawdads/mudbugs/yabbies we caught by hand.