plant growth

this is the cod with the deformed spine, photos aren't crash hot but you should be able to see the hump and then his tail fades away to nothing

quick question, do you all run salt in your system all the time? How do you know when enough is enough? I feel I need to add some more after the rain, if it washed the nitrates out surely the salt followed the same path, as the water evaporates there is no salt residue so I'm guessing it's all flushed out of the system
thanks
cod fish

Nice system and plant growth!
To keep fish separate in a tank, you can use cages.
It can work with shrimp too.
For the shrimp, i'd put them in bucket of water with a bit of fish food, they can reproduce and you could use them to feed your fish without risking to transmit pathogens.

I think that if you run salt in your system on a permanent basis there won't any treating dosing that would be usefull, the treatment works on the difference of salt in the body of the parasite and in the water. As they are always the same by osmosis, when added the salt rushes in the internal liquid of parasites and explodes the cells because of the speed at which it comes in. The maintenance cells of internal pressure of the parasites is overrun and stops limiting the entrance of the salt inside and the internal density will increase and impact all the specific cells for the life of the parasite.
It works the same for the fish but since they are bigger organisms with more cells, the fragile cells are protected inside the body and they are equiped with specific cells that are called sodium pumps which can regulate the salt input. A rapid increase will still impact the cells and consume energy to control a slow increase of the internal salinity to equal the external density.

If you get parasites used to 3 ppm, which is the max for the plants, to treat the fish you'll need at least 6 ppm that will kill the plants.
Treat with parcimony if you want it to work long term, it's like everything there is always a define working quantity/length in time, if you use it fast it runs out of efficiency fast too.

That is the treating part, for the system it can be usefull to add a bit of salt for the trace elements that it carries with NaCl. It depends on your pH and how soft the water is, and if the system is filled with rain water which is pure water and doesn't carry any minerals and trace elements that you would find in river waters.

wouldn't you hate to be a small fish, this is one I fished out this morning, didn't get on so well with his bigger brothers and sisters

things going so-so at the moment, most plants doing ok, cucumbers and zucchinis have gone moldy and dry since the rain, tomatoes flowering well.
Still no nitratres even though I started giving them three feeds a day plus caterpillars from the caulies. I'm a bit surprised there's no nitrates as the fish have really wanted to eat more over the last week, I'm still crushing/cracking some pellets but at least half are going in whole (4mm pellets) and the bulk of the fish have no trouble with them. Have had three die in the last 4-5 days, one got decapitated, one appeared to have starved, one not sure on. I think this is 12 dead that I know of so I should still have approx 60 left
Have had the first string of hot days since putting the shadecloth over the beds, highest water temp I saw was 29o yesterday so the shadecloth is doing it's job. Think I will buy a max/min thermometer to hang under there as usually things are cooling off when I check things after work
cod fish

Hi cf. Spinal deformities are a given genetically, but one would hope these fish would be removed prior to shipping. In the wild, those fish get eaten. Don't run permanent salt as amaca says, use it as a shock tactic at 3ppm. 3 kilos in 1000lts.
You are having a few deaths but murrays are a bit more difficult starter wise, than silvers or even rainbows. Ur plants suggest the system has cycled, so provided water parameters are fine, good times ahead. Keep posting pics and water readings. From memory u struggle with high pH so the hot water and high pH may have claimed ur deformed guy and reduced the ability of one or two suspect others to cope with relatively more toxic ammo and lower DO at higher temps. The one that got decapitated was simply the smallest dog in a 2 dog fight.

TT, thanks for the info, and amaca as well, ph has settled at about 7.4, dropped a bit after a down pour but came back up, system is cycled, was running 40ppm nitrates until the rain washed it all out the overflow and it has been zero ever since, have upped the feeding rate because the fish seem hungrier, are even coming towards the surface to feed, not just mooching on the bottom, also trying to get the nitrates up to make sure the plants are getting enough, might put some seasol in tomorrow
I agree with the survival of the fittest both in the dogfight and regards fish health, the one with the deformed spine should have been taken out by the supplier but hey the website says they grade them to 60mm plus for sale and that never happened
Fish are growing well though, smallest appear to be 50mm approx, largest appear to be up to 100mm and 3-4 times as big/heavy, have had them approx 6 weeks so not too bad for my first attempt, really need to grade and separate them, was thinking of using a yabbie pot but it may act as a gill net, don't have any baskets that would be suitable and no cash for a second tank at the moment
cod fish

think that should read 3ppt TT

thx Les

neglected to mention, had some family over on the weekend, most impressed with everything especially the mesh over the tank to keep the kids out, they said it smelt like the ocean, nice, crisp and clean.
Was told that one of them heard the ABC radio segment, the dirty rotten so and so, I missed it, bloody safety meeting at work that day, anyway they are considering an ap setup when they get out of their current business and retire to their 80 acres and were most interested in everything I could tell them
cod fish

g'day all, anyone got some nitrates for sale? up to three feeds a day plus caterpillars, some uneaten food but nothing like before, scoop it out about once a week, can't get a nitrate reading if I tried, not even an ammonia spike, still concerned plants not getting enough as they are just growing steady, not flatout
scooped a couple of cod yesterday, one approx 70mm, the other approx 90mm, huge difference in size, big one hides in the corner waiting for something to eat, is not the biggest either I think but the others hide under the pump
anyway got to go, storms, broken cross arms etc
cod fish

g'day again, went away for the weekend, fish weren't fed from saturday morning until monday morning, no obvious signs of carnage but there is some big fat cod in there.
Have got my first tomatoes set, quite a few flowers still coming on them yet, beans just about had it I think, starting to cool off at night, not sure on air temps but water temps were 21o at 19.30 sunday night, 16.5o at 6.15 this morning, 22o at 17.30 today, fish were hungry this morning but they seem to be less active, even at 22o this afternoon.
How do people go with apple cucumbers? mine are getting heaps of flowers but not setting fruit, too cold maybe? same for pumpkins and zucchinis although less flowers on these.
Will keep an eye on temps with the cooler nights, maybe pull the shade cloth down to get more sun on the grow beds therefore more heat into the fish tank, then maybe cut the timer back to only a few cycles over night to maintain tank temps, what do people think?
thanks
cod fish

above fish photo's looked better before being shrunk to go on here, the last one looked as if he was coming up to say g'day(more likely chasing food) is the same fish in the same spot every time I put my head in the tank, you would think he would be bigger having first chop at the food