How often do you feed adult tilapia

[boats4906]

I have been feeding my tilapia 2 times a day at 5 minutes each time.. is that too much food? I have noticed my Amonia Levels go up.. not sure if its the amount of times i have been feeding them or not

I have a chop 3 system with 80 fish in a 300 gallon tote

this system has been going on for 10 months

my recent ammonia levels was very high 5.0 ppm

my ph levels were zero

my nitrates are 160 ppm

I already changed my water just looking for future prevention

thank you,

James

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi boats4906,

"my ph levels were zero"????

As the Ph dips below 6 the nitrifying responsible for converting ammonia begin to, and eventually die off altogether. Over the 10 months of operation have you been buffering and maintaining your Ph. See this link http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html

[Alex Veidel]

Yeah, you might want to clarify on that. Did you really mean your pH is at 0? I'm going to assume you meant nitrites.

You can feed your fish as much as your system can handle. If your nitrate levels are above 30ppm, then you can cut back on feeding until it balances out again.

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi boats4906,

"my ph levels were zero"????

As the Ph dips below 6 the nitrifying responsible for converting ammonia begin to, and eventually die off altogether. Over the 10 months of operation have you been buffering and maintaining your Ph. See this link http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html

[boats4906]

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi boats4906,

"my ph levels were zero"????

As the Ph dips below 6 the nitrifying responsible for converting ammonia begin to, and eventually die off altogether. Over the 10 months of operation have you been buffering and maintaining your Ph. See this link http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html

i changed the water and my amonia went to 0.25 ppm and my ph levels went to 7.6 ppm now ,, i would like to keep it that way a week from now,,, maybe adding worm tea or epsom salts to the system may keep it there?

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi boats4906,

I am curious about, and you asked the reason why the Ammonia levels went up to 5ppm. That's the reason why you were forced to do a water change. So I asked, have you been buffering the Ph over the past 10 months? and what were the ammonia levels over that time? Did you have high Nitrites as well? If we cannot find the definitive reason the situation could repeat itself again. In AP, if managed properly, there is no need to change/exchange water.

[Alex Veidel]

James, I'm having a hard time pinpointing your problem. You have high ammonia and you were wondering if you were feeding your tilapia too much. Are you having any other problems?

If you've got high ammonia, you can cut back on feeding a little and monitor your levels. Also, check around for other sources that would cause ammonia spikes. Look for dead fish, or scan your growbeds for potential dead spots (if you're using media beds, sometimes you can have areas that go anaerobic. If an area in your media bed smells funny, or you see a contained patch where plants aren't growing well, that could be your problem.

How big are your tilapia right now?

boats4906 said:

i changed the water and my amonia went to 0.25 ppm and my ph levels went to 7.6 ppm now ,, i would like to keep it that way a week from now,,, maybe adding worm tea or epsom salts to the system may keep it there?

[boats4906]

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi boats4906,

I am curious about, and you asked the reason why the Ammonia levels went up to 5ppm. That's the reason why you were forced to do a water change. So I asked, have you been buffering the Ph over the past 10 months? and what were the ammonia levels over that time? Did you have high Nitrites as well? If we cannot find the definitive reason the situation could repeat itself again. In AP, if managed properly, there is no need to change/exchange water.

its the next day after the water change and my ammonia levels went to 0 and my ph is 7.6 and my nitrate is 180 ( looking to add more plants for that)  and my nitrites are 0 .... so things look good so far.

[boats4906]

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi boats4906,

I am curious about, and you asked the reason why the Ammonia levels went up to 5ppm. That's the reason why you were forced to do a water change. So I asked, have you been buffering the Ph over the past 10 months? and what were the ammonia levels over that time? Did you have high Nitrites as well? If we cannot find the definitive reason the situation could repeat itself again. In AP, if managed properly, there is no need to change/exchange water.

I have not been buffering the ph,, not sure how to buffer ph without the amonia going up,, i tried ph up and failed miserably. During the 10 months the amonia levels were 0.25 - 0.50 ppm.. my nitrates were 40 ppm then recently raised to 160 ppm.. i have 80 fish in my tank and 6 grow beds using the chop 3 system. I just did a recent test and my Amonia is 0.50 ppm ,,, my PH is 0 and  my nitrates are 160 ppm.

[boats4906]

boats4906 said:

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi boats4906,

I am curious about, and you asked the reason why the Ammonia levels went up to 5ppm. That's the reason why you were forced to do a water change. So I asked, have you been buffering the Ph over the past 10 months? and what were the ammonia levels over that time? Did you have high Nitrites as well? If we cannot find the definitive reason the situation could repeat itself again. In AP, if managed properly, there is no need to change/exchange water.

I have not been buffering the ph,, not sure how to buffer ph without the amonia going up,, i tried ph up and failed miserably. During the 10 months the amonia levels were 0.25 - 0.50 ppm.. my nitrates were 40 ppm then recently raised to 160 ppm.. i have 80 fish in my tank and 6 grow beds using the chop 3 system. I just did a recent test and my Amonia is 0.50 ppm ,,, my PH is 0 and  my nitrates are 160 ppm.

I would like to mak a correction,, i am actually holding a 6.0 ,, misread my api test chart,,looking at the amonia instead of the ph

[Keith Rowan]

the api master freshwater test kit ph only goes down to 6.. so it's sounding like your ph has actually dropped lower than that, which can inhibit the nitrification process.. you should buffer the ph back up to at least a measurable reading.. but do it slowly, i'd use hydrated lime, you can get from hardware stores/garden stores.. slowly means not making changes of more than .2 per day

add some shell grit to your growbeds after you've raised it, which will help keep the ph a little higher

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi boats4906,

Without buffering the Nitrifying bacteria responsible for converting Amonia/Nitrite will slowly die-off. This would be noticed by the steady rise in Ammonia and Nitrite levels over time. The Ph 6 may very well be much lower than it is as this is the lowest the test can record. The alternative will be to either continue with periodic water changes or to recycle and rebuild the bacteria. In recycling the resident fish will have to endure high Nitrite levels. affecting them so that some/all of them may even suffer and die. Please read, if you haven't already, the link in my first post.

[Alex Veidel]

Harold, just wanted to point out that he doesn't necessarily need to "buffer" his pH, but he does need to adjust it. Not that buffering wouldn't be helpful...it's just that words "adjusting" and "buffering" aren't interchangeable. Unless you're saying that if he doesn't put a pH stabilizing compound in his system, then his bacteria won't survive. Personally, my bacteria population is doing wonderfully and while I've definitely adjusted my pH, I've never played around with buffering agents of any kind.

Buffering agents (like shell grit) take a long time to adjust pH. If you end up using that kind of pH adjustment, make sure you wait a few days before testing your water and adding more to make adjustments. It's easy to think that what you're adding isn't having effect and then go and add too much. Personally, if I were to use a buffer in your case, I would adjust my water normally, then add a buffer to stabilize.

Harold Sukhbir said:

Hi boats4906,

Without buffering the Nitrifying bacteria responsible for converting Amonia/Nitrite will slowly die-off. This would be noticed by the steady rise in Ammonia and Nitrite levels over time. The Ph 6 may very well be much lower than it is as this is the lowest the test can record. The alternative will be to either continue with periodic water changes or to recycle and rebuild the bacteria. In recycling the resident fish will have to endure high Nitrite levels. affecting them so that some/all of them may even suffer and die. Please read, if you haven't already, the link in my first post.

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Alex,

Thanks Alex, been using that term way too long. Yes What I should say is "Raise the Ph". Some of us aren't aware of the bacterial mechanics in AP and the requirements necessary to maintain nitryifing bacteria. This understanding is very necessary for successful AP.