A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners
Needing Advice
We just put in our AP system about 5 days ago and we have been encountering some problems with the chemical levels of the water, the test kit we have doesn't test for ammonia (Quick Dip 5-N-1 Test Strips) but the readings for today are: nitrate/15ppm, nitrite/2.0ppm, total hardness/150ppm, alkalinity/180ppm, ph/7.9. I am needing some general info on what i am doing wrong and right.
Our System:
tank/ 10 gallons with river rock and what we believe to be a big quartz rock with 4 goldfish and one neon tetra, a Aqueon quiet flow 10 water filter, a eco 100 gph water pump, a heater, and a 6 inch air stone under the rock.
grow bed/ a 56 liter 24 1/4"L X 16"W X 11"H with 35 liters of hydrotron and 5 liters of river rock on the bottom, it also has 1 peppermint and 1 spearmint clipping, a strawberry clipping, 8 basil seed in a small pot in peat moss and 4 parsley seeds in a small pot with half peat moss and half hydrotron.
What I really need to know is how many fish do i need for our system? Why are the chemical levels so high? How do I bring them down? And why do our fish keep dying?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on
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A brand new system that is tiny. You are probably experiencing what is often called new tank syndrome which really means no cycled bio-filter and the ammonia and nitrite spikes are killing your fish.
You really need a test kit that will test for ammonia and the test strips are not reputed as terribly accurate.
A kit that will test for
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
pH and high range pH
is generally adequate.
Immediately if you are having fish deaths, you need to do a partial water change because the nitrite is high and I expect your ammonia is probably really high too.
You also should NOT FEED the fish. Don't Feed, STOP FEEDING! Your bio-filter is not cycled up and by feeding the fish you are only making the ammonia and nitrite spike worse which is killing your fish. Do partial water changes till the ammonia and nitrite levels are below 1 ppm. Then it might be worth while to salt the system to 1 ppt to help protect the fish from further nitrite toxicity a bit Here is a blog post with some numbers that may help you figure out how much salt to use salt for fish health
Test the water daily and only feed the fish when the ammonia and nitrite are down in a safe range. Eventually both ammonia and nitrite should be 0 but you are not cycled up to the fish load until both ammonia and nitrite can remain at 0 while you can still feed as much as the fish want. With such a small grow bed, you can't support a huge amount of fish anyway.
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Permalink Reply by Dan Roets on
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Should I add Quick Start to the tank every time i do a water change? How often should I add it?
TCLynx said:A brand new system that is tiny. You are probably experiencing what is often called new tank syndrome which really means no cycled bio-filter and the ammonia and nitrite spikes are killing your fish.
You really need a test kit that will test for ammonia and the test strips are not reputed as terribly accurate.
A kit that will test for
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
pH and high range pH
is generally adequate.
Immediately if you are having fish deaths, you need to do a partial water change because the nitrite is high and I expect your ammonia is probably really high too.
You also should NOT FEED the fish. Don't Feed, STOP FEEDING! Your bio-filter is not cycled up and by feeding the fish you are only making the ammonia and nitrite spike worse which is killing your fish. Do partial water changes till the ammonia and nitrite levels are below 1 ppm. Then it might be worth while to salt the system to 1 ppt to help protect the fish from further nitrite toxicity a bit Here is a blog post with some numbers that may help you figure out how much salt to use salt for fish health
Test the water daily and only feed the fish when the ammonia and nitrite are down in a safe range. Eventually both ammonia and nitrite should be 0 but you are not cycled up to the fish load until both ammonia and nitrite can remain at 0 while you can still feed as much as the fish want. With such a small grow bed, you can't support a huge amount of fish anyway.
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http://www.apifishcare.com/Products/Product.aspx?ProductID=642
i have added about 35ml of this stuff since a put fish in the tank with the water changes, my levels from today before the water change were: nitrate,17 nitrite,10.0 hardness, 75 alkalinity, 105 PH 7.6, and ammonia, .25 and a few hours after the water change: nitrate,12 nitrite, 3.0 hardness, 65 alkalinity, 70 PH, 7.4 and ammonia, .25. Are my numbers starting to look better?
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The nitrite is still in the danger range or either another water change or salt to 1 ppt to help protect the fish and be patient.
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Ok so what about the quick start? Should i add more after the change?
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I don't know what this quick start product is. Tell us more about it. What is it supposed to do? Is it some sort of bacteria in a bottle or is it some sort of water conditioner to deal with chlorine/chloramine?
I can't tell you what to do with it if I don't know what it is.
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http://www.apifishcare.com/Products/Product.aspx?ProductID=642 this link will describe it better than i can
TCLynx said:I don't know what this quick start product is. Tell us more about it. What is it supposed to do? Is it some sort of bacteria in a bottle or is it some sort of water conditioner to deal with chlorine/chloramine?
I can't tell you what to do with it if I don't know what it is.
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Ok so it looks like a bottled bacteria product.
If you have already purchased it or have part of a bottle left from before, you can add it though in my opinion, bottled bacteria isn't really worth spending money on it. See it takes about 6 weeks to cycle when using it and it takes about half a dozen weeks to cycle without it.
How can a sealed bottled product provide much in the way of viable live cultures of aerobic bacteria? The ones that cost hundreds of dollars and have to be kept cold and still have to be used in a very short period of time from bottling are probably the only really viable ones and are probably only appropriate when you are trying to save a really costly system and/or collection of fish from catastrophic demise due to some disaster.
Anyway, should you use it? Shrugs, if you have it and can't return it, ahh you might as well I guess. Maybe it will help a little and hopefully it won't hurt. I wouldn't recommend buying more or anything like that. You just need to have patience and let your system cycle up. Minimal or no feeding if the ammonia or nitrite levels are either of them close to 1 or above.
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Ok then i prolly wont use it because i think that the system is starting to get cycled up anyway because the nitrite levels are dropping even though i'm feeding them a little bit every day, the ammonia has been staying at .23 though but the nitrite went down to 1.0 and stayed there for 2 days and hasn't gone up even though i have been feeding them just enough to keep them alive, i think i'm almost there.
TCLynx said:Ok so it looks like a bottled bacteria product.
If you have already purchased it or have part of a bottle left from before, you can add it though in my opinion, bottled bacteria isn't really worth spending money on it. See it takes about 6 weeks to cycle when using it and it takes about half a dozen weeks to cycle without it.
How can a sealed bottled product provide much in the way of viable live cultures of aerobic bacteria? The ones that cost hundreds of dollars and have to be kept cold and still have to be used in a very short period of time from bottling are probably the only really viable ones and are probably only appropriate when you are trying to save a really costly system and/or collection of fish from catastrophic demise due to some disaster.
Anyway, should you use it? Shrugs, if you have it and can't return it, ahh you might as well I guess. Maybe it will help a little and hopefully it won't hurt. I wouldn't recommend buying more or anything like that. You just need to have patience and let your system cycle up. Minimal or no feeding if the ammonia or nitrite levels are either of them close to 1 or above.
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Fish can normally go ages without food. I don't know about the tetra but I know the goldfish are lying to you when they say they are starving and about to expire and give you those sad eyes. They are just little swimming piggies.
Resist them! Don't Feed until the nitrite is well below 1. Keep the feeding minimal until the nitrite is down below .25
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Lol i didn't know that, they ate the tetra by the way a few days ago, but the water cycle is good to go, i can feed them now as much as they want and he nitrite and ammonia ate staying at zero (although im not getting anymore nitrates and im not sure why) but a have a new possible problem and that is what a believe to be flat worms growing on the sides of my tank, i guess they are caused from to much food waste in the water and wont harm the fish but i dont know if they are in my grow bed and if they will eat the roots of my plants or something? What is the best way of getting read of these worms and how can i do it without harming my plants or fish? It is possible that i could be wrong and they are parasites or something else. Do you know of a way to identify them and get read o them?
TCLynx said:Fish can normally go ages without food. I don't know about the tetra but I know the goldfish are lying to you when they say they are starving and about to expire and give you those sad eyes. They are just little swimming piggies.
Resist them! Don't Feed until the nitrite is well below 1. Keep the feeding minimal until the nitrite is down below .25
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