what fish for beginner small tank ebb and flow systems

[Benjamin]

I'm recent to aquaponics, I have reserched the internet for months found the rules of thumb and different system styles and cycle times. From what I understand I have a flood and drain fast fill slow drain style system, with a ten gallon FT and two cubic feet of grow bed filled with hydroton the hydroton was a gift from a friend who dose hydroponics outherwise the whole system was built out of things I had in the house. My system runs on a fifteen minutes on ninety off due to really slow drain. Due to slow work and hard times affording healthy food and snacks has become exspensive and I have been wachong the aquaponic gardening. For information on building small systems but most growers have much bigger systems and when the ground thaws I might go dig a pond for a bigger system if this works but my question is I read its bad to have feeder goldfish as they're prone to diseases and are usually half dead when you get them I have had a ten gallon Ft for my children for a bit and decided to use it in my set up it jas feeders in it and all kinda died. Off becouse they wernt that heathy to begin with but one has survived its heathy and happy if I go to the local pet store that grows them and sells them they look much better than the wallmart ones and its only ten cents different would that be acceptable or is thair some outher type of cheep fish tht can be used in the system the goldfish where my choice becouse they are very dirty and thair is no way I can fit a pound of fish in a ten gallon FT so any idea what would be the best route and I know the ten gallon is small for a few goldfish but I have an au
Aunt with a koi pond and I would gladly let them be happy in thair when they stat getting larger. Thanks for any advice and sorry for spelling and grammar issues I'm doing this from a phone so its hard to see the half inch of screen.

[Kobus Jooste]

decent quality goldfish is a good bet.  They are hardy enough for aquaponics and a good choice for a smaller system.  If you get the better quality fish (not the feeder type you refer to) it should work just fine.  Enjoy setting your system up!

[Chi Ma]

Try some live bearing fish. Platies, Mollies or Guppies. They are good looking fish and lively. They regulate their own population and won't breed out of control. Best of all they aren't messy like goldfish. You can start with 2 in the 10 gallon and they will populate it.

[Johann]

Just about any kind of fish will do, the way I understand. You just have to watch for the temperature range , the fish can handle, especially if you keep the fish outside.

Some folks use ornamental fish and some folks use fish they like to eat since they have to buy fish food anyway and it would be more economical to use fish that you will eat at a later future.

Back to the feeder goldfish. Feeder goldfish are kept by the hundreds at the fish store and this will put a lot of stress on the fish. Stress on fish will or may turn into disease for being overcrowded. But it does not mean to exclude feeder goldfish from your list.

Best would be to quarantine the new fish for a couple of weeks before putting the newcomers into the main-tank.

As a side note:

Cycling a new fish tank will take about 3 weeks and yes fish will die until the tank is cycled. If you have an outside filter or gravel filter, you can rinse it briefly to get rid of the debris , but do not attempt to clean it. If you clean it really good, you will wash away the bacteria and you have to cycle your tank again.

 

I am a new to aquaponics. I am cycling a tank right now with minnows, that will be put in line with barrel system I will put in place. I used to work at a fish store and I raised fish before in tanks. 

 

[Burton]

Normal gold fish, don't get feeder fish they tend to have issues.

However, if you cannot keep normal gold fish then you need to rethink your aquaponics future as they are the most hearty of any fish when it comes to accepting varying water conditions.

Dont go "fancy" get the ones with a single tail, ie no "V" and poofy fish get topical looking fish. Try to keep temps below 85 and above 32 lol optimally 65 to 75 degrees F. Feed them products with no more than 30% protein in them, keep their water clean and within a pH 6.5 to 7.5 :)

I think there is a gold fish group on this site too might want to join it ... I am probably going with two types of goldfish permanently in my tank since I don't plan on eating my fish. Shubunkin and Sarasa comets, both about 10/12" max length, 29 gallons minimal per pair, both like the same temperatures, and both are pretty :)

http://goldfishcare.info/shubunkin-goldfish.php

http://goldfishcare.info/comet-goldfish.php

[Jonathan Farrand]

I went with feeders(comets) and what people say is true. I knew ahead of time what I was getting into though.  I haven't had major problems or infecting others already in the system(healthy fish!!), but the first batch I bought only four out of ten lived. Most deaths were from Ich but I also see genetic flaws in the feeder fish population. Deformed bodies and curvy spines. This is from over breeding of closely related families of fish. Which I am sure is common practice in the feeder fish buisness. I am still using feeders keeping in Darwin fashion and letting nature take it's course. Strong fish can come out of feeders, just riskier. Any fish from a pet store has potential for problems from the cheapest to the most expensive.  I agree with Chi Ma live bearers are fun to watch and come in a ton of color variation.  Guppies are real hardy.  I have put that species through their paces with different ph values and colder temperatures.  They are strong!!  My system needed more bio-load so I bought 15 more feeder comets one week ago and only one has died so far and no signs of Ich either. These feeders had very vibrant color and where swimming strongly at the pet store. One sign of trouble in any pet store tanks I would not buy one fish from that tank or display. Pet stores usually have alot of tanks connected, so a whole systme could be bad even if one tank has one bad fish.  That is a pretty simple and affective guide to go by.  Aquarium clubs are a good place for healthy fish too!!

[Larry Hill]

I'm using cheapo $0.27 Comet feeders.  I had initally bough WAY too many, and had some casualties.  But now that I have an appropriate number, I have had no problems so far, except that it seems to be taking a long time to cycle up.  I think part of the reason for that is my basement is very cool.  (My decision not to heat the water was part of my decision to go with goldfish, btw.)

[Burton]

How many did you get Larry and what size tank do you have?

I am going gold fish too because it will be cheaper on the water heating bill :) BUT I have an idea for a cheap source of heating / cooling I might try out.

[Johann]

That is the very same reason that I bought my dozen minnows at the tackle-shop for $2, they get new one every few days and they are located right at the lake and pump lake water into there holding tank. That is the same body of water they get the minnows from.

I went to petsmart last night just before they closed and they had about 4 dozen dead fish in a plastic tray. Makes me wonder how many dead fish they have in a day that died on diseases.

Jonathan Farrand said:

I went with feeders(comets) and what people say is true. I knew ahead of time what I was getting into though.  I haven't had major problems or infecting others already in the system(healthy fish!!), but the first batch I bought only four out of ten lived. Most deaths were from Ich but I also see genetic flaws in the feeder fish population. Deformed bodies and curvy spines. This is from over breeding of closely related families of fish. Which I am sure is common practice in the feeder fish buisness. I am still using feeders keeping in Darwin fashion and letting nature take it's course. Strong fish can come out of feeders, just riskier. Any fish from a pet store has potential for problems from the cheapest to the most expensive.  I agree with Chi Ma live bearers are fun to watch and come in a ton of color variation.  Guppies are real hardy.  I have put that species through their paces with different ph values and colder temperatures.  They are strong!!  My system needed more bio-load so I bought 15 more feeder comets one week ago and only one has died so far and no signs of Ich either. These feeders had very vibrant color and where swimming strongly at the pet store. One sign of trouble in any pet store tanks I would not buy one fish from that tank or display. Pet stores usually have alot of tanks connected, so a whole systme could be bad even if one tank has one bad fish.  That is a pretty simple and affective guide to go by.  Aquarium clubs are a good place for healthy fish too!!

[Larry Hill]

I have a 20 gallon rubbermaid "garbage can" for the tank, and four restaurant bus tubs circulating raft-style (actually, holes in the bus tub lids, with net pots just touching the water.  I estimate it to be roughly 40 gallons.

 

According to aquarium people, I should only have 3 or 4 goldfish.  Because my purpose is NOT to have clear, pretty water to watch my fish, I have a total of eleven.  (I was going to keep only 8, but some of them looked really cool, so I kept them.  And the last guy I caught...  I thought he deserved to stay for being quick and sneaky.)

 

The advice I got here was basically to double what the aquarium experts say.  The most common answer is 20 gallons for the first fish, then 10 gallons more for each additional fish.  My 40 gallon system = 4, times 2 = 8 fish.  I went a little over, but they are pretty darned small.

Burton Rosenberger said:

How many did you get Larry and what size tank do you have?

I am going gold fish too because it will be cheaper on the water heating bill BUT I have an idea for a cheap source of heating / cooling I might try out.

[Jonathan Farrand]

Larry what is your temperature?  Because what your saying is basically what I have going on as well. My temperature ranges from 57 degrees to 62 degrees.  I tested my water early and it showed lots of nitrates this only after a few weeks from starting.  I recently checked it, about six weeks from start and it showed no ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Your cycling problem may be your plants already comsuming the nitrate. So, no problem at all.  I was surprised to see how quickly my AP system cycled compared to my aquariums I previously kept (usually 3 months, sometimes more). It seems like it has taken around one month for my AP system to not show signs of nitrates and my 20 gallon tank is fully stock with comets.

Larry Hill said:

I have a 20 gallon rubbermaid "garbage can" for the tank, and four restaurant bus tubs circulating raft-style (actually, holes in the bus tub lids, with net pots just touching the water.  I estimate it to be roughly 40 gallons.

 

According to aquarium people, I should only have 3 or 4 goldfish.  Because my purpose is NOT to have clear, pretty water to watch my fish, I have a total of eleven.  (I was going to keep only 8, but some of them looked really cool, so I kept them.  And the last guy I caught...  I thought he deserved to stay for being quick and sneaky.)

 

The advice I got here was basically to double what the aquarium experts say.  The most common answer is 20 gallons for the first fish, then 10 gallons more for each additional fish.  My 40 gallon system = 4, times 2 = 8 fish.  I went a little over, but they are pretty darned small.

Burton Rosenberger said:

How many did you get Larry and what size tank do you have?

I am going gold fish too because it will be cheaper on the water heating bill BUT I have an idea for a cheap source of heating / cooling I might try out.

[Larry Hill]

I forget what it was last time I actually took the temp.  It was high 50s though.  Very cool compared to most.

 

I'm really only about two weeks into cycling since I got rid of the extra fish and swapped out most of the water.  The ammonia is under control, so I'm not terribly worried anymore.  I'm trying to be patient now.  Before I had WAY too many fish...  it was bad.

[Jonathan Farrand]

Yeah, sometimes people get lucky and the plants take quickly to absorb nitrates and sometimes they don't. I used to battle this when I began growing aquarium plants.  A great consumer of nitrates are some floating plants.  Water Hyacinth, water lettuce, and duckweed are some.  Gold fish will definitly eat duckweed.

Larry Hill said:

I forget what it was last time I actually took the temp.  It was high 50s though.  Very cool compared to most.

 

I'm really only about two weeks into cycling since I got rid of the extra fish and swapped out most of the water.  The ammonia is under control, so I'm not terribly worried anymore.  I'm trying to be patient now.  Before I had WAY too many fish...  it was bad.