I just had an epic fail on my aquaponics system.
I got my bluegill (fish) on friday and excitedly brought them home. I tested my water. everything tested low or nonexistant except I have a high mineral content. I floated the bag for an hour to let the temp equalize, then I tipped them in and they were happily swimming around. all was good.
until the next morning when half of them were either gasping on the bottom or top of the tank. I thought that I was providing them enough aeration with the water going through the hydro system. so I rushed over to the petstore and got a bubbler and installed it and watched and waited. they started to die. I frantically researched aeration online. wrote many anxiety-ridden posts to the Aquaponics forum. They just kept dying. I was concerned about the hardness of my water but there isn’t much you can do about that except to get distilled, which would push this project into the absurd.
then for some reason it suddenly occurred that all my values were low…including PH. um…DUH. I checked the PH again and yeah…way low. I got out the super duper ph test kit and my water was at 4.0. (supposed to be 7, and each point is logarhythmicly different from the next.) holy moly!!!! I had my fish in ACID WATER. their poor gills were fried.
out of 28 fish, 6 are still alive. hopefully their gills aren’t damaged beyond repair. I have attempted to correct the PH but with my mineral content, it is goiing to buffer it alot so I am going to have to keep checking it and altering it all night. OY Vey…(facepalm)
fish are way more complicated than chickens. but I guess I don't have to worry about them being taken by fox.
I got my bluegill (fish) on friday and excitedly brought them home. I tested my water. everything tested low or nonexistant except I have a high mineral content. I floated the bag for an hour to let the temp equalize, then I tipped them in and they were happily swimming around. all was good.
until the next morning when half of them were either gasping on the bottom or top of the tank. I thought that I was providing them enough aeration with the water going through the hydro system. so I rushed over to the petstore and got a bubbler and installed it and watched and waited. they started to die. I frantically researched aeration online. wrote many anxiety-ridden posts to the Aquaponics forum. They just kept dying. I was concerned about the hardness of my water but there isn’t much you can do about that except to get distilled, which would push this project into the absurd.
then for some reason it suddenly occurred that all my values were low…including PH. um…DUH. I checked the PH again and yeah…way low. I got out the super duper ph test kit and my water was at 4.0. (supposed to be 7, and each point is logarhythmicly different from the next.) holy moly!!!! I had my fish in ACID WATER. their poor gills were fried.
out of 28 fish, 6 are still alive. hopefully their gills aren’t damaged beyond repair. I have attempted to correct the PH but with my mineral content, it is goiing to buffer it alot so I am going to have to keep checking it and altering it all night. OY Vey…(facepalm)
fish are way more complicated than chickens. but I guess I don't have to worry about them being taken by fox.
