Gemmells System

gemmell · **Posted:** Wed Oct 03, 2007 7:32 am

janetpelletier wrote:

... or if the water has too much buffering.

What do you mean? I have quite a few shells in my system, but I thought they were only activated when the pH drops below 7 becomes acidic and attacks them.... could these shells be driving my pH high?

gemmell · **Posted:** Wed Oct 03, 2007 7:36 am

RupertofOZ wrote:

Quote:

or filtering through peat moss

Coco-coir generally has a pH in the range 5.5 - 6.5..... so you could put some in a pot under the return line or even in the sump or fish tank itself....

Remove periodically and test... if necessary put it back... etc...

Some coirs are also soaked in brine, as such they have a salt content....

Quote:

The thing that will stress them even more is to bounce the pH all around by trying to change it too fast, or if the water has too much buffering.

Heed Janet's above warning... although with your mortality rates, what have you got to lose anyway...

Of course the other way to change the pH is to do a 100% water change over a day or two.... from a source with a better pH obviously....

This would also remove any free floating pathogens from the tank, but not necessarily from within the sump/growbeds etc.....

Bit drastic, but ultimately might need to be done to "sterilise" the system anyway...... F&F basically had to do so and start again.....

Hrrm, there is so much that COULD be causing it, I really am confused. I am really hoping that my recent changes will fix the problem. I will get a better pH test kit and check on it tonight.

TimC · **Posted:** Wed Oct 03, 2007 9:50 am

Whats the temperature of the water?

gemmell · **Posted:** Wed Oct 03, 2007 11:54 am

It's been below 20, then got up to 20 degrees last weekend. But I bet it's going to be higher tonight. I have a shit ton of DO so it's definately not that.

gemmell · **Posted:** Wed Oct 03, 2007 7:57 pm

The good news:
No further deaths, remaining fish (~30) looking hunky dory.

The bad news:
The gale force winds blew my greenhouse to shit again. I am now resigned to the fact that clips are not going to work for me. Will have to work something out this weekend.

gemmell · **Posted:** Thu Oct 04, 2007 7:45 pm

Woot, another day with no deaths. Fish are eating and generally seeming healthy.

I think the issue has been solved, I'm not sure what it was, but it could have been:
A) Silicon (I attempted to reseal one of the grow beds while in operation, may have needed to rinse after it dried - it WAS aquarium safe though)
B) Some kind of contamination from the wooden dowel that was in the system. Or from the dirty netting I used to protect the fish from getting sucked up (it didn't work). It was one of those nets that you get oranges and onions in. When I took it out it stunk which is not a good sign.
C) An ammonia issue caused by high pH (maybe coupled with algae causing swings).

I'm left with about 25 fish (from 47). I personally killed 8, but I still lost about 15.

Ammonia is low, Nitrate is low, pH is still high, but the fish seem happy, temperature was 16 degrees when I measured it this arvo. Plants arn't liking the high salt content, but the fish are healthy.

RupertofOZ · **Posted:** Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:02 pm

If the fish are still healthy in a day or two, then you can always do a 50% water change, which will half your salt concentration and perk the plants back up.

gemmell · **Posted:** Mon Oct 08, 2007 9:52 am

Update:

No further fish deaths, but several leaks have sprung. I used the barrels with screw tops - BAD IDEA. Basically they deform a little and break the silicon seal I've put in and I get leaks. It's happened a couple of times now. Is there a better way to seal them or should I just fork out the extra $70 and shift the rocks to the bung barrels?

Also, I replaced some of the water that had leaked out with tank water and I noticed some koi flashing..... so I threw some more salt in, I'm wondering if there is something wrong with my tank water!

Delgrade · **Posted:** Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:33 pm

can you seal the leaks form the inside ? that should minmise the stretch on the slicone should it not ?

i would go with the other barrels though myself

gemmell · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:39 pm

Time for an update. Fish and plants are doing well (touch wood), growth this week has been great after a salty couple of weeks.

Harvested some water cress (which by the way is going CRAZY) which was nice in a salad.

The main issue facing me now is heat - we had a couple of ~31 degree days and the greenhouse gets really hot - the cress is starting to go to seed and I'm sure the others will be quick to follow because of the heat. I'm thinking of taking the greenhouse cover off completely.

Here are some photos for comparison:
Week 1:

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Week 5:

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Week 7:

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So a slow start, but looks like it's operating quite well now. Nitrates produced by the remaining 25 fish get sucked up by the plants - get readings of zero from the tests. Check out the cress (the closest to the front in the left hand bed) it was literally taking over the rocket and strawberries before I gave it a trim.

Oh and my greenhouse seems to act like a bug trap which is good for the fishies:

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gemmell · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:44 pm

And some shots of the fish:
Week 2:

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Week 7:

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Can't really tell, but they've grown quite a bit.

Axl · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:44 pm

Looking good!

Delgrade · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:36 pm

nice to see it all going ahead gemmell

how did you go with the leaks ?

gemmell · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:42 am

I siliconed them up. They were pretty small in the end. One fish died just after I did it, and I was paranoid that the silicon had poisoned the water but none of the others were affected.

veggie boy · **Posted:** Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:07 am

Hey Gemmel - Looking good. Got a question for you about the G'House. Did you sew the fabric (end sections to main part)?

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