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Comment by Chris Cates on August 8, 2012 at 10:53am

Yep, we fishless cycled during March using Sylvias kit including seaweed extract.  I also added chelated iron about 2 mos ago because leaves were yellowing.  We're not testing every day.

We'll get some more seaweed extract.

Comment by TCLynx on August 8, 2012 at 10:24am

Did you fishless cycle before getting the fish?

Have you been testing the ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate and pH every day since getting the fish?

If you were not testing the water every day, or every other day, and you started with the small fish on the lower protein feed like the dense culture or Aquamax 4000 and were only feeding them what they would eat in 5-15 minutes, then you could have missed the spikes. 

For a balanced aquaponics system once it is cycled, you want ammonia and nitrite to remain 0 ppm and the nitrate level doesn't really matter that much as long as the plants are happy.

In FL this time of year, it is too hot for Broccoli and brussels sprouts, they are a cold weather plant.  Start more in the fall.

I expect you may see some benefit from adding some seaweed extract

Comment by Chris Cates on August 8, 2012 at 9:57am

A little more detail on the plant growth we're seeing. Bear in mind neither of us were gardeners when we started this.

We have had some decent growth, but some of it looks very spindly.  Brocolli ended up as trees with thin, curly heads.  I have a brussels sprout plant that is making sprouts but they're opening up.  This plant was planted the first week in April, and just started making sprouts about a week ago.

We had a bunch of bush bean plants that were pretty productive but ended up diseased so I pulled them.  Oregano is growing well, rosemary is surviving but growing very slowly.  Basil is growing well even though I keep cutting it back.  I've already dried more oregano and basil than we'll use in the next year so I'm tempted to pull those.  I had a bunch of stevia plants that I thought I was going to use for sweetening but once I dried it and ground it up it smelled like feet, so they're gone.  They grew well though.

I have one pepper plant grown from seed planted also in the first week of april.  It looks good, very tall, lots of blossoms that usually fall off.  I've gotten 3 peppers off it so far, two more are growing on it now.  In contrast, a pepper plant planted in the ground at the same time has produced 15 or 20 peppers but is half the size.  The one in the system has been an aphid farm for a week or so but I've just about eliminated that problem, not finding very many aphids on it any more.

I recently started 7 tomato plants and 8 pepper plants and transplanted them into the system. 3 tomato and 1 pepper survived the transplant process. I did find an earthworm in the process, no idea how it got there.

We just haven't seen any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate since we added the fish.

Comment by Frank Cates on August 8, 2012 at 9:36am

Thanks TC, going back to the higher protein food had not occurred to us.  We started with Dense Culture Feed from Aquatic Ecosystems but switched recently to Aquamax 4000.  They do seem to eat well though.  We are seeing some fish growing much larger than others, and some have not grown much at all. Given that bluegill do not get very heavy we probably have between 10 and 12 pounds total for fish at this point.  There are 5 growbeds totaling 67 cubic feet of filtration so even when the bluegill are fully grown we will still be below the filtering capacity.  The ph level is good, all other values are still at zero.  The plants grow well but are spindly and not very productive.  We had already decided to reduce the number of plants until the nutrient levels come up, we can get the higher protein feed as well and see if that helps.

Comment by TCLynx on August 8, 2012 at 9:05am

I would say don't get more fish, instead, feed them a higher protein fish feed meant for growing up small fingerlings.

What have you been feeding them so far?

What do your water tests say?

Are the plants growing, do they seem happy?

Even if you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate with a pH between 6.2-7.2 and the plants seem happy then you are just simply balanced and you may have missed the cycle up.
  If your plants are unhappy, I would say check for nutrient deficiency to figure out why they are unhappy.  Not all nutrient deficiency is due to lack of fish.  Only if your system is showing signs of specifically nitrogen deficiency and your pH is in range and you are already feeding a high protein high quality feed would I say you maybe need more fish.  Iron deficiency, potassium deficiency, trace element deficiency, high pH, or growing out of season can also make plants unhappy and adding fish wouldn't help those problems.

It really doesn't take that much fish to keep an aquaponics system ticking over.

Comment by Frank Cates on August 8, 2012 at 8:31am

We have an IBC tote set up as the fish tank and put in 55 bluegill fingerlings back in April.  We have realized we do not have enough fish to even begin to register nutrient levels so we need to add more fish.  I am concerned about adding fingerlings though, will the current fish eat the new arrivals?  Or, will the current fish bump them out of the way when we try to feed them?  We had considered adding some channel catfish but we are not sure if the dimensions of an IBC tote would be too small for them.  The tote has about 250 gallons of water and 54 bluegill (we did lose one), what would be a good approach? 

Comment by TCLynx on June 28, 2012 at 9:59am

smoked catfish makes a great dip and I like to substitute it for tuna.  I expect other types of fish would work that way too.  Wouldn't take much to smoke bluegill since they are small.

Comment by Keith Rowan on June 28, 2012 at 7:51am

i haven't canned any of mine.. but we (my parents and grandparents) used to can what we caught when i was young, great way to eat the smaller fish 

i don't have many bluegill (maybe 10 or so) in my system right now, but i may can some of my perch.. i'm planning my first fish harvest for this july, most will be fried, but i'm going to smoke some fillets as well

 

Comment by TCLynx on June 28, 2012 at 7:10am

for lightly

Salmon, rockfish and flatfish (sole, cod, flounder) and other fish

They recommend 110 minutes

Comment by TCLynx on June 28, 2012 at 7:08am

Ok just checked and the The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommennds 100 minutes canning time for the following fish Blue, Mackerel, Salmon, Steelhead, Trout, and other Fatty Fish Except Tuna

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