fish dying 2 to 4 per day

[Brad Moreau]

I have 2 - 275 gal  ibc with around 60 tilapia in each & two gold fish. The gold fish is around 5" long. He got sick first, so i put him in a small tank & he got better. As for the tilapia, not so good. I was loosing 1 to 2 a day, then a 50% water change & 10 lbs. of pool salt in a 2000 gal system. Water temp is between 58* to 65* F.  All ammonia, nitrates and nitrites are in good range 0 - .25.  Fish stopped eating about two weeks ago.  I've been feeding them duck weed and small amounts of food (45% protein), just to keep them alive.  For two days, I lost none, then today...seven.  Out of the seven, a couple of them had red blotches on them.  The other dead ones looked normal.  I have added extra air and I started to heat the tank up more, but thought maybe I should leave it cooler to kill off any bacteria.  Should I just let the fish die off or...????  Any advice?

[George]

Water temp was likely the problem, I believe.  You've got a lot of heating to do yet to get them through the winter.

Where are other 1500 or so gallons of water that aren't in the fish tanks?  That seems like a lot of water.

[Brad Moreau]

George, 

I have 2 raft beds 4'x22' & 3000 gal sump tank in ground

I heated water to 68* / 72* but still was loosing fish

George said:

Water temp was likely the problem, I believe.  You've got a lot of heating to do yet to get them through the winter.

Where are other 1500 or so gallons of water that aren't in the fish tanks?  That seems like a lot of water.

[Keith Rowan]

what are your water readings?  ph, ammonia nitrites and nitrates...it looks like you're pretty heavily stocked.... most of my tilapia made it down to 48 for a few days before i slowly started warming the water.. best not to feed at all when the water is that cold

what kind and how much filtration do you have?

 

[Brad Moreau]

Keith

all reading are good

PH High 7.8

PH 7.6

ammonia .25

nitrate 0

nitrate 0

temp 58*

only one dead today

I have around 12 fish in 80 gal tank they seam to be okay, eating some food , none dead yet

I have 10 in 30 gal tank same

just dying in ibc's

I vacuumed out all solids from raft beds @ water change

I have 55 gal bio/swirl filter with solid discharge pipe that I drain 3x a week (solids only not complete filter)

should I drain & clean filter?

 4x6 gravel bed to filter 2nd ibc

plants doing great chard 24" tall kale the same, bell pepper, celery, boc coy is just starting etc.

water is clear with no smell 

And thats a 300 gal sump tank not 3000 gal

PH might be a little high because of water changes & yes a chlorine filter with water changes

and I put the gold fish that got sick first in the 300 gal sump & he's doing fine ?? idk
Keith Rowan said:

what are your water readings?  ph, ammonia nitrites and nitrates...it looks like you're pretty heavily stocked.... most of my tilapia made it down to 48 for a few days before i slowly started warming the water.. best not to feed at all when the water is that cold

what kind and how much filtration do you have?