Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Savage, much appreciated.

Eleven dead now. H has gone down to talk to the aquarium man.

Get a heap of activated carbon from somewhere.... it could quite possibly be some sort of phosphate or inorganic contamination. If the algae has just suddenly come on I would say something is feeding it.

What else can be used to get rid of chemicals?

All it takes is a neighbor spraying into the wind or termite sprays? Insecticide? Do you have any poisonous plants nearby like allamanda, ferns, potatoes (leaves). Have you added any plants to the system recently? Did you wash out the soil from them?

nothing added recently, Tim. Our neighbours are pretty good. When they cleaned their roof a couple of weeks ago, they came and told us they were about to do it. I doubt it's spray drift.

13 dead now.

How are the alive ones looking Forest?

they still look lethargic, VB. Still coming up to the top but not gulping, hanging around the areation outlets, a few more have died. It's quite depressing. H went to talk to the aquarium man and he said we should not have turned off our pump at night. Live and learn.

yep that was me but cant offer any advice at the moment mine definatly was chemical contamination

Forrest no reading all your thread how many fish in how much water ! also definatly leave your air pump on 24/7 I find its best to feed no later than mid day also my tanks are covered 85 %

This may be useful.

http://www.fishdoc.co.uk

we're really just taking a stab in the dark, but my stab is DO, especially if they're hanning around the air.

I have turned my pump off at night for quite some time now, but have two airstones running to supply o2

I`d be tempted to run the pump constantly for now (or even rig up a fountain if you can) just to get some O2 back into the water and hopefully prevent any more fatalities.

Maybe get a few clean buckets and fill one with fresh well-aerated water and one with some of the tank water (also well aerated) and put a fish in each and see if they pick up.
If the probelm is chemical, the O2 won`t help much but the fresh water bucket may confirm it if the fish in that one improves.

Hope you get it resolved soon, i hate losing fish..except to old age.

Almost all of them are dead now. I'm sure it was the DO problem.

What upsets me the most is that I took these fish into my care and didn't have enough knowledge to keep them alive. This has taught me that I really need to learn a lot more so I can provide a safe environment for my fish.

Thanks for your help everyone.

Hi Forest
Sorry for the loss of your fish

You shouldn`t be too quick to blame yourself though as it may not have been your fault.

Ouch sorry to hear about your fish. I know most are leaning towards a lack of DO because you had stopped running your Pump at night. That sounds like the cause I agree.
If you have any left give them a new home to see if they come around.
Its my idea this may rule out a possible contamination issue.
A new home will of couse require monitoring water conditions and conducting water changes as needed just as you did before your grow beds were connected.
I would look closely at any possible path of contamination ie wind, rain, dipping hands into the water. It is disappointing to say the least to hear of your problem but hang in there we are all learning as we go.

Oh Rhonda, I'm sorry to hear about this. There's nothing I can say or do for you :hug:

Forrist sorry to hear of your losses but as everybody said to me you have the main inferstructure take a sample of water in a sterile bottle and pull favours at a uni for tests i kept running on a bottle of seasol so as not to kill the plants clean the fish tank first add goldies then flush the beds to waste and then bring each on line [See my thread starting again ] Look at the growth now as the saying goes fall of the horse get straight on