Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It's a miracle

Hi Forest
Good to see some are hanging in there.
I wondered if there might be a possibility of condensate dripping into the tank from somewhere (off treated timber etc).

As already mentioned, if you`ve used the pumps off at night regime from the start, although not great for DO levels and perhaps the bacteria too something else has must have changed or been added to the equation very recently to trigger the mass deaths.
The fact that the onset appeared to be very rapid without many (or any) early warning signs from the fish seems to point to bacterial infection if water contamination can be ruled out.

If it is the case then the pump being off may have contributed by lowering the fishes resistance to infection but it could just as easily have been 1001 other things too.
I have buried apparently perfectly healthy fish that died in a short time, while their tankmates (same species) were completely unaffected.

It`s just one of those things that can happen from time to time.

I`m guessing those 8 survivors may have a permanent reprieve from seeing the dinner plate

Forest, OUCH! soory bout your fish.

Having read the last 4 pages i'm going to shift towards contamination or something.................

I have had the same experience as EB, i was doing a "back up power run time test" one night and fell asleep, woke up about 3 hours after the backup ran dry and found all the fish gulping for air, turned the O2 on and everything was good within 15 mins or so.

I started getting sus when you'r count got to 11 and you'd turned the pump back on...................

Re: what the aquarium guy said.................standard aquarium formulas go out the window with AP.

This is the way it works, as long as you have a capable bio-filter to deal with the number of fish (you do) and you have sufficient O2 (you do) then the only limiting factor with such densities is the frequency of water changes for nitrate (aquarium), but since thats the job of the plants, its all good.

keep us posted on the fate of the remaining ones.

ahhh, what i'd give for a water sample anyalyser

F&F, haven't seen a mass spectrometer lying around at the tip, have ya?

I feel so sorry for you Forest, I was really hoping they'd be OK.

Steve, I think they have one of those where I used to work. ( food testing lab ) They handle all sorts of stuff, including water testing.

Guess they might notice if someone 'borrowed' it though!

Hi steve dont even know what one looks like does a sewrage farm have one
on overnight running the other day ran for 36 hrs only on the air stones forgot to turn the pumps on next morning [ memo must get a timer for the night time] bloody alsimers

Very true. For fun, I ran the numbers on my tilapia. Comparing a 125 gallon aquarium with UGF and a power filter, with my 125 gallon AP system: I would put 12 fish in the aquarium and have no room for them to grow. My AP system is supporting 55, with room to grow.

glad to have validation by another aquarist felt like i was sticking my neck out

I lost three Huge goldies at school recently.

Despite good results from chemical testing and excellent aeration, I put it down to dropsy. (However there is a nasty Koi and Goldie virus running around at the moment!)

They looked healthy, No scales sticking out, but were lethargic and wouldn't eat. No sign of bloat.

The tank they were in was a little small .. but I have seen fish packed like sardines in small tanks so long as wastes are taken care of and aeration is adequate. (Not good or ethical practice though!)

I took the little buggers home and tried to nurse them , to no avail.

Now I will sterilize everything in the hospital tank with hypochlorite or methylated spirit before I reuse.

Other fish at home - no probs recently other than 2 deaths in a cichlid bin .. due to poor filtration and no plants to soak up the nitrogen compounds. ( A big tomato plant in a gravel filled pot went in shortly after the deaths, used as a bio filter, water is crystal clear , and smells sweet and drinkable!)

We're leaning towards contamination now as well. We've noticed the algal growth on the walls of the tank look like camouflage material - it's not ONE growth but looks like two different species of algae. I wonder if a few of you would post pictures of your biofilm so we can compare it. I'll take a photo of ours when the sun's up. H and I think the biofilm has changed but we could just be clutching at straws.

This is a photo of the algal growth on the tank at the moment.

This is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago.

In the top photo, it's those lighter green spots that are concerning us. That has started growing in the past week or so.

The vegetables still look heathy and don't seem to have been affected by whatever killed the fish. We've removed all the plants from the tank, just in case they were holding something, we haven't fed for a few days, the pump and areators are going 24/7. Today I'm making a shade coth cover to go over half the tank to give the fish a shelter and a feeling of security (I hope). We really are trying to look after these fish well, even though it doesn't look like it.

If this was your tank, what you you be doing today and tomorrow?

There are 7 fish left. All look ok, there was one fatality overnight.