I did a basement system that had identical symptoms. I had others attribute it to lack of air movement, improper lighting, lack of bees, immature system, lack of iron, detritus solids in grow bed. It's a tougher than it looks grow curve, that's for sure. I was going to set it up on the open air patio without a green house and see if that helps. I'll be following your efforts!
Thanks for the feedback. I haven't added anymore ammonia for about a month. Almost all of my goldfish are dead. I'm not sure why. I'm adding adult bream and crappie now. Plus it gives me an excuse to go fishing. Lol. I just cleaned out and replanted all the beds. I'm going to leave the doors open to the greenhouse so that the bees can access the flowers and for better airflow. I'll add a new video once the plants start to mature.
***** If you have air flow that moves the plants you wont need bees. The only thing that requires them is the Cucumbers(squash etc), tomatoes (they will self pollinate) do not require pollination. I grew up raising in regular greenhouses. Some times we were not able to get bees to pollinate and you can get a vibrating pollinator and you just walk from plant to plant and "buzz" them a few seconds and all will be good. What is your fill rate? (How often it fills to drain) Cant see how low the water gets but I know that if it doesnt drain far enough down to let the roots get air they will get rot on them. I know you mentioned your siphons not draining. I had that issue, it would work the first time then not STOP siphoning and so put a small tube from the top along the side to get a better break of the siphon. It worked good so I designed my own siphon that I 3D Printed which is even better. We grew in purlite with drain pots in the green house but had that issue when they would get plugged up.
Sorry to hear what happened with the Ammonia and the fish. The Nitrogen cycle is an important balance for them to thrive in. I would almost recommend getting them settled first before planting anything else, but it seems that you have things going good again.
if the fish are not generating enough waste get more fish. instead of 50 per tank make one 100 and the other 200. also remember all of your new plastic is releasing lots of gases in confined space as the age the will release less gas. black pots tend to hold heat. are you averse to worms? if not, get some. I love what you are trying to do and hate to hear the frustration you are experiencing keep the faith, you have a great foundation in education and equipment, just lean on your mentors and your homework and be slow to change.
Do some more research on blue tilapia. It is easy to get a home-use permit for them, if they are even illegal in your neck of the woods. A lot of people confuse the fact that Nile tilapia is a conditional fish with that of blue tilapia which isnt usally a conditional fish in FL. Even if it is conditioned, you'd spend a lot less on the permit than you might spend on other endeavors. Im up here in the near-Jacksonville area, i subbed to your channel, let me know what you find out.
One of your major issues is you dont have near enough fish, for those IBC totes, that was my biggest issue in my first system, i only had 40 fish ina 250 gallon system, I bumped to 100 fish and the system went crazy good. That was 20 catfish and 80 crappie, in ohio . This year I am adding a tank and doing perch. Also switched from river gravel to , hydroton . huge weight advantage (much lighter) as well as keeping the system better balanced. which was overwhelming my Ph because of the limestone that was in it.
I'm in ohio as well Chip. Are you running an open air system or green house? I did a basement set up that would only grow leafy greens, so I'm looking at setting up on patio.
Chip Truitt I have talked to a lot of people that started in basement and the moisture really was an issue and the artificial lighting cost them a lot.
+Chip Truitt (Cracked Up) We ran a 170 gallon outdoor open air system in Northern MI this year. We ran into ph problems but once we got the ph down to 6.5 the plants took off. We also had a shortage of fish but that didn't cause nearly as much trouble as the ph being too high. Seaweed extract can be safely added to compensate for the low fish numbers while they grow and breed but no matter how much nutrition is in the water plants have a hard time absorbing it in hi ph water. Hydroponics growers aim for ph levels as low as 5.5 because the lower the ph the easier and faster the plants can take in the nutrients. With most fish you will need to aim for somewhere between 6.5 and 6.8 ph. This year we will be upgrading to a larger system between 1500 and 2500 gallons...I am going to need a lot of fish but until we get the numbers up we will supplement with seaweed extract. On a side note crayfish do wonderful in aquaponics and they are excellent in the fall when you have to shut down for winter.
It's a beautiful system. I hope it picks up for you and brings a bountiful harvest in the future. God bless you.
I did a basement system that had identical symptoms. I had others attribute it to lack of air movement, improper lighting, lack of bees, immature system, lack of iron, detritus solids in grow bed. It's a tougher than it looks grow curve, that's for sure. I was going to set it up on the open air patio without a green house and see if that helps. I'll be following your efforts!
Thanks for the feedback. I haven't added anymore ammonia for about a month. Almost all of my goldfish are dead. I'm not sure why. I'm adding adult bream and crappie now. Plus it gives me an excuse to go fishing. Lol. I just cleaned out and replanted all the beds. I'm going to leave the doors open to the greenhouse so that the bees can access the flowers and for better airflow. I'll add a new video once the plants start to mature.
***** If you have air flow that moves the plants you wont need bees. The only thing that requires them is the Cucumbers(squash etc), tomatoes (they will self pollinate) do not require pollination. I grew up raising in regular greenhouses. Some times we were not able to get bees to pollinate and you can get a vibrating pollinator and you just walk from plant to plant and "buzz" them a few seconds and all will be good.
What is your fill rate? (How often it fills to drain) Cant see how low the water gets but I know that if it doesnt drain far enough down to let the roots get air they will get rot on them. I know you mentioned your siphons not draining. I had that issue, it would work the first time then not STOP siphoning and so put a small tube from the top along the side to get a better break of the siphon. It worked good so I designed my own siphon that I 3D Printed which is even better.
We grew in purlite with drain pots in the green house but had that issue when they would get plugged up.
Great job thanks for updating us. I will be starting a system soon and this helps a lot.
Sorry to hear what happened with the Ammonia and the fish. The Nitrogen cycle is an important balance for them to thrive in. I would almost recommend getting them settled first before planting anything else, but it seems that you have things going good again.
Where is our summer update??? Hope all is well and growing health.
looks like a great setup. How did it do over the summer?
if the fish are not generating enough waste get more fish. instead of 50 per tank make one 100 and the other 200.
also remember all of your new plastic is releasing lots of gases in confined space as the age the will release less gas. black pots tend to hold heat. are you averse to worms? if not, get some.
I love what you are trying to do and hate to hear the frustration you are experiencing keep the faith, you have a great foundation in education and equipment, just lean on your mentors and your homework and be slow to change.
Do some more research on blue tilapia. It is easy to get a home-use permit for them, if they are even illegal in your neck of the woods. A lot of people confuse the fact that Nile tilapia is a conditional fish with that of blue tilapia which isnt usally a conditional fish in FL. Even if it is conditioned, you'd spend a lot less on the permit than you might spend on other endeavors. Im up here in the near-Jacksonville area, i subbed to your channel, let me know what you find out.
One of your major issues is you dont have near enough fish, for those IBC totes, that was my biggest issue in my first system, i only had 40 fish ina 250 gallon system, I bumped to 100 fish and the system went crazy good. That was 20 catfish and 80 crappie, in ohio . This year I am adding a tank and doing perch. Also switched from river gravel to , hydroton . huge weight advantage (much lighter) as well as keeping the system better balanced. which was overwhelming my Ph because of the limestone that was in it.
I'm in ohio as well Chip. Are you running an open air system or green house? I did a basement set up that would only grow leafy greens, so I'm looking at setting up on patio.
Greg Wood I am running it in a greenhouse, I have thought about a basement set up as well.
Chip Truitt I have talked to a lot of people that started in basement and the moisture really was an issue and the artificial lighting cost them a lot.
+Chip Truitt (Cracked Up) We ran a 170 gallon outdoor open air system in Northern MI this year. We ran into ph problems but once we got the ph down to 6.5 the plants took off. We also had a shortage of fish but that didn't cause nearly as much trouble as the ph being too high. Seaweed extract can be safely added to compensate for the low fish numbers while they grow and breed but no matter how much nutrition is in the water plants have a hard time absorbing it in hi ph water. Hydroponics growers aim for ph levels as low as 5.5 because the lower the ph the easier and faster the plants can take in the nutrients. With most fish you will need to aim for somewhere between 6.5 and 6.8 ph.
This year we will be upgrading to a larger system between 1500 and 2500 gallons...I am going to need a lot of fish but until we get the numbers up we will supplement with seaweed extract.
On a side note crayfish do wonderful in aquaponics and they are excellent in the fall when you have to shut down for winter.
Rick Bauer thanks for that I thought about adding crawfish this year, wondered what that would do, to help balance.