Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That was not it, sorry. Hope the fish are still alive when i get it.

Ouch! One of the guppies is dying. She lies in the bottom, now. The nitrites are very low, nitrates as well, both tests are yellow, the minimum value.
The last days, she was swimming in the bubbles of the pump. Maybe the fish suffered from the high nitrite of the beginning? Maybe I gave them too much food too
i need other tests. Chlorine, ammonia, which are the tests I should do?

Swimming in the bubbles sounds like a parasite, skin or gill flukes, or maybe a fishy rash. the bubbles 'scratch an itch' so to speak.

Steve has much better Aquarium knowledge than me - second opinion?

Thanks for the advice. Maybe the 2 others are not affected. They look ok, but are quieter than in the beginning.

fred, i'm late for work, will reply in more depth later, what size is your tank?

how many fish total?

how much are you feeding?

how long have the fish been in the tank for?

steve

The tank is a small 25 liters.
They were 3 guppies, 2 actually. They are asleep now. Shhhhh...
I give 1-2 pinches a day, and I kill small fleas for them (I think it is too often, there is a lot of waste on the bottom. I must give less often)
They are here for 10 days now, and the system ran with only the plants for 3 weeks.

Fred,

I dare say that if you buy an ammonia test kit and test your water it will be quite HIGH

Having a new tank set up for three weeks, even with plants, will do little to cycle the system unless there is an ammonia input. And the tank being only 25 litres will make and swings very large.

Neal in the UK seems like he sucessfully cycled his tank just by adding fish food and letting it decay, for a moth or so before putting his fish in.

All the things that you have told me, and the fact that you have food rotting in the bottom makes me very confident that your ammonia will be high. Buy a test kit to verify this if you like. But i would do a 50% water change as soon as you can. (make sure the temp of the water you are putting in matches your tank temp, and use a de-clorinator product) all of these thing are much more critical when you are dealing with such a small volume fish tank.

It is not surprising that the nitrites are zero, as they will only start to rise as the ammonia starts to drop.

If you do a 50% water change now, then test for ammonia after, just double the reading to get the value that it would have been at!

Hope this helps. Read up on the nitrogen cycle and bacteria and stuff HERE http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... m.php?f=11

Also, do you have some type of filter?

do you have gravel? (not saying you do, just curious)

Steve

Ok, I will buy an ammonia test.

When I started the system, I put old bread in it. The next day the nitrites went very high. I regularly added rice in the tank during these 3 weeks.

I follow your advice about renewing water. Anyway I need to add 10 liters every week or so, as the tomatoes seem to drink a lot or it evaporates easily (my indoor greenhouse is 30° hot). I either add Aqua Safe to destroy clorine, or I wait 24h before pouring fresh water in the aquarium.

Anyway I need to test ammonia.

You are saying the same as a friend aquarist: A small tank is more difficult to equilibrate. I thought it would be easier Nevermind. Next tank will be 400l!!

There are pellets in the bottom of the aquarium, a small air pump + filter. there is also a big filter in the buffer tank.

I'll post pictures tonight. I finally received the camera this morning.

Sounds very strange that nitrites went up the day after putting bread in the NEW system. UNLESS the bread contained nitrites or something that interfered with the test. I know nitrites are used extensivly in cold meats (salami) curing and preservation.

You are 100% correct about a larger size being more stable, in every sense, temperature, ph and more..........

Earlier on in one of my posts i think i suggested that people shuld always go as big as they can fit / afford. It makes life so much easier

Fred, DO NOT get confused with ADDING 10L of water and CHANGING 10 L of water. They are COMPLETELY different. If you need me to explain this then just ask

If you can possibly get a bigger tank then i would, it sounds like you are growing some thirsty plants! It will only take one small mistake with 25L and at 30C.

If you would like to keep it in a fish tank i would suggest a 180L (4 foot) tank, but you could use any container with aquaponics. A really easy way considering you are growing tomatoes in a green house, is to use a plastic 44-gallon (200L) drum, just cut the top off it and you have a 200L tank (very cheap ) you just won't be able to admire your fish as much

In fact, this old bread was lying for months in my kitchen, so I suppose they were already contained in the bread?

I may consider buying a larger tank, would be worth because the water is not really cycling as most of it is renewed each time.

When I came back from work, a new disapointment was waiting: the second female died.
Here is a picture of the survivor. Not sure he will last longer

Here are some more pics of my attempt to aquaponics:

Here are some more pics of my attempt to aquaponics:

It looks ridiculous, but the Totem is a very small plant