New fish

Well I have been sick for the last couple of days, but I made a lot of food with ginger and garlic and loaded up on vitamin C and feel better. Today my friend Jason, of North Texas Aquaponics, and I went and picked up some Tilapia. I bought 6 full size fish. On the drive home Jason and I discussed ways to heat the tanks. Jason has a very clever idea, and if your interested please comment and I will give you his info. Right now I have aquarium heaters in my systems, and the temps thus far have stayed above 65 degrees. I am starting to worry though that the falling temps here in DFW are going to possibly kill the fish. I have thrown around the idea of making a solar recirculating heating system, but have my doubts. I may just put one more aquarium heater in each system, but would love a way to lower energy use. I am open to any and all ideas. I look forward to hearing from you. I will have more photos and videos up soon.

My outdoor system

I am very happy to announce that my outdoor system has finally stopped cycling. I was able to tell that my system was done cycling because my nitrates were high, while my ammonia and nitrites were 0 ppm. This took exactly 30 days, and quite a few dead fish later. As I stated in a previous post, from now on I will give all of my fish salt water baths, in order to protect them against a new system cycling, as well as clean them of parasites. I will post a how to on the exact measurements and time required to give fish a salt bath. I would also like to note that salt baths will help sick fish, as they shock the fish into an autoimmune response. While the shock will not kill the fish, it will kill the parasites.

My indoor system is in a testing phase whereas I added a bacteria, completely organic, to see if it would start and finish the cycling process earlier. The only additive to the outdoor system was the seasol I added, initially daily, then twice a week, it took that system exactly 30 days to cycle. I am hoping that the nitrifying bacteria I added to the indoor system will produce great results. I have my fingers crossed. One system down many to go.

The Nitrogen cycle

Because of the recent events of the last week within my own system, high Nitrates, and Nitrites, I thought it would be prudent to explain what I have learned. First I would like to thank Jason at North Texas Aquaponics for insight into my potential problems. Like the stubborn man I am, I decided to cycle my system with fish, I knew the risk to the fish but thought that with due diligence I would be able to decrease the amount of fatalities caused by Nitrate, and Nitrite spikes. Given I was never, ever going to introduce any foriegn toxins into the system, but maybe some bacteria cultivated some where else i.e. pet store, or a already established aquaponics system. Needless to say i have lost two more catfish. For some reason the Nitrate and Nitrite spikes have not hurt the Bluegill.

There are two ways to first start your system, with fish or without. To cycle your system without fish all you have to do is add your plants and feed them plenty of Seaweed extract. Then you test your water daily, adjust your PH, and wait for the Nitrates and Nitrites to spike, after which you wait until the system is down to tolerable levels for your fish. After this phase you add your fish and continually check your PH,Ammonia and your  Nitrites and Nitrates. Spikes within these tests can tell you a lot, I will explain in a later post. To cycle your system with fish all you do is add everything at the same time, your cycle may be shorter, but you need to expect some fish deaths.

The nitrogen cycle consists of Ammonia from fish waste and uneaten food, Nitrobacter, Nitrosomonas and your plants. The process works something like this, first your fish eat, then defecate and urinate, in an aquaponics system that waste, to include uneaten food is then deposited into your grow beds. Once in your grow beds Nitrosomonas convert the harmful Ammonia into another potentially harmful substance, Nitrites. The easiest way to understand how Nitrites are harmful to fish is to use an analogy, Nitrites are to fish as carbon monoxide is to creatures that breath air. High Nitrite levels can lead the fish to die from what is referred to as “Brown Blood”, where the Nitrites attach to the fish’s lungs and gills basically robbing them of the ability to breathe. The Nitrites are then consumed by Nitrobacter which produce nitrates. Nitrates are not typically toxic to fish but they are one of the first signs that your system is out of balance, with the potential of Nitrite levels rising. Nitrates are then utilized by the fish, in turn cleaning the water of Ammonia.

My system is now spiking, so I hope that the Nitrobacter’s get on the ball and hurry to bring the nitrite levels down. I do not plan on using any foreign toxins to artificially bring these levels down, but perhaps I will ask Jason at North Texas Aquaponics to use a few rocks from his system in order to introduce more bacteria into mine. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them. If there is a certain subject you would like to write about feel free to ask as well. I hope you all have a great day, and Happy growing.

A representation of the Nitrogen cycle

New videos

I bought the rest of my parts today to finish my indoor unit. With this recent development I will start making how to videos and posting them here. I plan on also making some self reliance videos, and other videos related to aquaponics and self reliance. I have some friends and family members that are starting to or have been,living a self reliant lifestyle and with their help I plan on making videos of our progress. If there is a certain type of video you would like to see, just ask.  This video shows how easy it is to use Oasis grow cubes and Hydroton. 

The Pluco’s are happy

Yesterday I bought some Pluco’s (sucker fish) for the tank. I bought these in order to combat the new algae growth. My good friend Jason, informed me that the algae growth was probably a result of overfeeding, or not enough plants in the grow bed. This is just one example of how quickly the ecosystem within a aquaponics system can fall out of balance. Another way I plan to combat this is to add more plants to the grow beds.

Feed The Fish

I thought this would be a good exercise for some of you newer Aquaponics folks. Remember that if you feed to the fish too much you will throw your system out of balance. Excessive feeding will cause excess waste, and that waste will not be properly cleaned by your plants, the results could be higher ammonia levels (potentially deadly), and even algae growth (thanks for that bit of wisdom Jason). Have a great day

Ideal water temperature for catfish and Bluegill

As I posted earlier I installed a heater for the fish in order to keep growth up during the colder winter months. Here is a quick little list of what is optimal for the fish, and should help keep plant growth continuing as well, who knows maybe fresh Tomatoes in January.

Catfish

60-72 degrees, any colder than 40 degrees and they have no interest in feeding

Blue gill

65-72 degrees, any colder than 50 degrees and they lose their appetite as well.

So I will keep the water temperature between 65 degrees and 70 degrees. In order to facilitate maximum plant growth I will plant warm weather plants that will absolutely love the warm water. My only concern is that in these temps algae growth in almost inevitable, so I think I will put some fresh water sucker fish into the system.

My fish are happy

The fish love the fact that I installed a heater for them. I checked the water temp this morning at it was a very nice 70 degrees. I will be posting more information about the ideal water temps for various fish here in the future. If you have any questions about fish temps let me know.

We are official!!!

Sage Aquaponics Has just received it’s LLC. one step closer to providing healthy and locally grown produce and fish to our community and friends.

Heater

I just installed a heater in my fish tank to warm up the water for my fish. I hope they like it. Unfortunately I also found one dead Bluegill this morning. That means of my initial 15 bluegill I lost one and of my initial 10 catfish I lost 2. Not to bad. I have ben checking the Ph and Ammonia levels regularly and is all is well.