Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Changed out about a third of the water. Nitrite has dropped a bit, good. GH has dropped back to 160, still hard but better. Won't feed em at all for a couple days see how things go. They certainly seem a bit happier.

is hardness an issue ??

and i think that boiling water will increase the TDS and probably hardness due to the water evaporating whilst i boils the liquid left becomes concentrated

but i wouldnt have thought it would make that big a difference, how much are you addin at a time ??

say 50 lts over an hour. I tend to think it is a few small things not quite spot on. My intro aquaculture course has a heavy focus on water quality this term, so i should be able to nut things out better shortly.

eg, a tall narrow column has been shown to be better for biofilters. Different types of nitrifying bacteria perform better at different depths. In AP, generally our biofilter depth is 30cm in our gbs. So i may incorporate a taller tub of rock in my return line which might help the consisyently slightly high nitrite readings i get.

Water nice and clean this morning tho, fish hitting the food pretty hard, no more casualties.

got another upside down swimmer today. Swimming beautifully, just upside down. Hopefully it thinks everybody else is doing it wrong!

Been really cool temps overnight and lost a few smaller fish lately. Have been feeding a little less and did some tests for the first time in a few weeks today. Best results ever! Nitrite, buggerall, no ammo, nitrate 30ppm, good pH, KH and GH. Caulis are going boom and celery is like, "how long has this AP thing been goin on?" My cauli heads are small due to plant density but the flavour is magic. The system seems to be in balance and it is a bit of a pity it will be sacrificed to make way for Tragic's Greenhouse, given it has found it's equilibrium. All in all, pretty happy with this test set up and ready to take the punt on a bigger system.

at least you have an established bactereia colony to kick start your new system

Cheers

Aint that the truth

Well the trial system really seems to have stabilised. We have had some sunny days lately, so things are warming a little. I ran the spa pump for a good hour 2 days ago, to really give things a good filter. The fish have been very active and ravenous since. Have been giving them a bit more tucker which disappears quickly. Ammo tho is nonexistant and nitrite levels continue to be lower. Nitrate is picking up as we harvest a few plants, but i have some new ones coming on and the celery is going boom, so it should stabilise around it's current 30-40ppm. pH is really stable around 7.4, been expecting it to drift a little lower, but it hasn't yet.

We are down to 11 fish from 21. I was blaming the cold but i reckon it has been more a water quality thing, wearing them down and the cold has just finished the weak ones off. Most of the remaining fish appear in rude good health. I reckon i had some gill damage in some that died from stress related to their initial stocking, just a combination of 1-2 things not spot on, accompanied by the inevitable newbie errors.

I would like to use these fish to cycle my Tragic Greenhouse but am a bit worried about pathogens they may already be carrying. Dasall

Dont worry get the sumps hooked up to a couple of grow beds and then gradually bring the others on line

Hi how did you go with the float switch no problems supose you are ready to run this weekend [ i wouldent dismantle the first system yet] just put gunk from the spar filter over to start the greenhouse

Hi FF. Just need to complete the tap plumbing to the beds. Only got the one sump pump atm, so the fish may need to be moved. It's getting exciting.

OK, had 8 remaining fish out of 21. Weighed and measured them all today b4 placing in the sump of the new system. I have decided that the deaths over late winter were due to poor water quality.

Used 6 drops clove oil (any chemist, $6.95 for 10mls) in 15lts and they were sleepy byes in a couple minutes. The water I used was from the big system they are going into. Water temps were comparable and all other parameters were more favourable than the water they had been in.

I had high nitrite levels bc the spa pump was in fact anaerobic and pump was only running for an hour morning and night. Air bubblers all day. Poor fishies.

Anywho, one or two had some tiny red spots on them, which I think is indicative of poor O2 uptake due to high nitrites in the water. (Someone please correct me on this if I am wrong.)

The largest was 24cm lip to end of flesh b4 the actual tail fan and weighed 340 grams. The smallest was 16cm and 130 grams. Averages across the 8 were 20cm and 200grams roughly. They were on average 15cm and a hundred grams when i got them 190 days ago so they have grown 5cm on average and doubled their weight on average. Not bad over winter in sub optimal conditions, (although there were always heaters in the spa.)

We will see how they go in the sump tank. I have them in the sump that doesn't have the pump so solids removal will be an issue. I put them there bc water drains in 24/7 and DO should be really good. It means that their poo will have to go thru the sump pump and big tank b4 it gets to the gbs which is not ideal, but will have to do for now.

They are sulking a bit but have been through an ordeal so hpefully we won't lose any. Look fwd to eating some at easter.