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Comment by Robert Rowe on June 22, 2015 at 3:17pm

Hey folks; a health problem hast cropped up forcing me at least for awhile to shut my  sytem down.

I have about 75 fish mostly Tilapia about a year old and several Red Comet Gold Fish.

If you have room in your tank and would like some fish please call Bob Rowe @ 602-799-7208.

Comment by Jeb Calen on June 17, 2015 at 9:49am

The past week was rough on my system too.  I had 10 goldfish and went away for 10 days, had someone feed the fish every few days.  I'm down to 2 now.  Ammonia at .25ppm (even with the dead fish in the system), nitrites and nitrates at 0, and pH is around 7.4 which shouldn't be too bad.

If I had to guess, it's low oxygenation.  Store bought air pumps tend to not work long outside so I don't bother with external oxygenation outside of the water return from the grow beds auto-siphon,  Water temps were about 98 when I tested at 5:30PM, had to be hotter during the day (I don't keep the grow beds or FT shaded right now, going to move the system at some point)..  Do they sell O2 test kits at pet stores / aquarium shops locally?

Comment by David Schwinghamer on June 10, 2015 at 11:31am

Any newbies out there looking to build your own system? I have got everything you need and more.

Comment by Jeff S on June 7, 2015 at 1:42pm

I lost 2 plecos at at different times i a 45 gallon aquarium with 25 Tilapia fingerlings. When I say lost I mean they disappeared. I assumed the Tilapia ate them. I have 4 separate FTs from 45 gallon to 275 gallons and don't seem to have any fish loss problems no matter how bad the water seems to get.Sure I loose a fingerling from time to time but when you're talking 1200 fish it's not like there's a problem. 

Comment by Arlene Baker on June 6, 2015 at 4:08pm

John: I wonder. Have any of your neighbors sprayed their yards or anything, that the wind might have carried it over into your tank? I always worry about things like that....

Comment by Arlene Baker on June 6, 2015 at 4:07pm

Robert, so sorry to hear about 'the disaster' - it always seems it is something, isnt' it? A few days ago, I realized I hadn't heard the bell kick in, and sure nuff, when I checked, the pump wasn't pumping. Dread...I took it apart, and cleaned out all the little obnoxious snails inside, and voila! full pump ahead. Went out and got my loaches to b e on duty and snail patrol, hopefully that won't happen. But if I had not been outside and notice this, the plants would likely all have died, and the fish would have gotten poisoned. Gosh. It is always something....

Comment by Robert Rowe on June 6, 2015 at 2:21pm

I just went through a system disaster in my 1500 gallon system and lost about 10 mature Tilapia and 4 mature Red Comets.

The root cause was a restricted feeder line from my FT to 4 media beds. my plumbing had a low point which tended to collect debris. I had some flow,enough for the plants. I also had my FT open to the Sun. The excessive light and limited water flow allowed an algae bloom which sucked up all the Oxygen. I have now shaded around and above the FT with 3 layers of green shade cloth which pretty much keeps all sunlight out of the FT.

During this disaster my Nitrites and Nitrates both went to zero.

I also replaced about 500 gallons of water.

Presently the system appears to be on the mend. Fish are active, Nitrogen chemistry is returning to normal ad I am a bit wiser for the experiance.

Comment by John Malone on June 6, 2015 at 1:35pm

No - it's a complete mystery.   Lost a couple a day over several weeks.

Basic water chemistry was spot on.  No nitrites or ammonia.

The only thing I can think of was that I overfed them or there was a dead fish polluting the water.
It's quite disappointing.  For a couple of years the fish were bulletproof.  The last two years I have done nothing but kill fish.
Very disappointing.

Comment by Robert Rowe on June 6, 2015 at 1:29pm

John

Do you have any idea why they died?

Comment by John Malone on June 6, 2015 at 1:09pm

Well - I'm down to one solitary goldfish.   I had 30 tilapia fingerlings and about 40 small goldfish in my 500 gallon system.   They all died except Bubba, who is a survivor.  He's survived 3 or 4 batches of new fish and just keeps on keeping on.

Bubba is probably 5 inches long now, which is pretty good going for a 17c goldfish from the mega-petstore down the road.

Aquaponics needs more than one solitary goldfish to be successful, but it's amazing what you can grow with only one small goldfish.

Find more photos like this on Aquaponic Gardening

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