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Ammonia at ANY level is not good for fish.



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I meant all the algae that is growing not the ammonia.

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Yes, the algae is a favored food for the tilapia.



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The secret to growing massive amounts of algae is fertilizer. It's also the easiest thing to get into trouble with. Putting in the right amount of fertilizer is the hardest thing I have yet to learn. I nearly killed all of my fish one time doing it but I think I'm catching on. It's a good thing I had all the free time on my hands when I first started out. I'm absolutely sure that if I did not have all the aquarium experience and free time to watch them, that I would have killed these fish ten times over!

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Steve,

You are right that growing massive amounts of algae (Or other plants) takes a lot of fertilizer; however, you shouldn't have to add any fertilizer with such a high concentration of fishes.

One of the main components in high quality fertilizers is liquefied fish shit. It might just be called liquid fish fertilizer, or fish extrusion.

All you should have to do is have water that comes directly from your filter go into another holding tank without a lid. This could be another kitty pool or something like that. It doesn't have to be too deep, but should have a lot of surface area exposed to sunlight. You can experiment with what aquatic plants you put in there if you want something other than algae.

This would be beneficial for two reasons:

1) You would be growing a low cost (essentially free) supplement to your tilapia's diet.

2) The algae or other plants will use the fish extrusion as fertilizer. The plants will siphon off a decent amount of ammonia to help themselves grow. This can act sort of a buffer, or boost to your biological filtration. In addition to using ammonia, the plants will use nitrates. This will lower those levels as well, or create a buffer.

I would not recommend adding fertilizer to the system. I am not so sure that the benefits out-weight the risk in this situation.


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I just attempted to test my water for ammonia with a test kit. My water is so green that it already looks like it has ammonia in it before I even add any chemicals. It's going to throw the test off. How do you test greenwater for ammonia? It looks impossible with a standard test kit.

I got a feeling my ammonia is at or near zero already and that I've been getting false ammonia readings before. I might have kept reducing their food till they ate all the algae and then the ammonia tested for zero when it might have been zero all along...

It is possible after the fish ate all the algae they started eating only fish food and required massive amounts. Now that the algae is back they don't eat nearly as much catfood. I also can only see about six inches down. But there is no cloudiness to the water. Only deep green. Almost black! The fish waste has also gone from brown to green again.

My new pool is 1800+ gallons. It's easy to mentally round up to 2000 gallons but I rarely fill it over 1500. I think this has been part of my problem. Going from 4000 gallons to 1500 is taking a little getting used to. My new pool is closer to 1/3 of the old pool. Not 1/2 the size... This will help a lot even though I'm pretty much playing everything by ear instead of measuring. With cats eating my fish food and greenwater affecting my test kits; playing it by ear is becoming my only choice!

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What size are you fish? I haven't run into any of these issues but I might not be keeping them in the tank as long as you are. I hatch them and keep them until they are about 5-6" before they go into the pond.

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I kind of sort of agree with your reply Gflo. Maybe attempting greenwater was not a good idea on my first try but I really don't like the idea of eating fish that were raised on 100% genetically modified feed.

I am sort of way ahead of you. I will be attempting to grow vegetables and crayfish in the new fiberglass tanks I have coming. One major complication will have is that I will be moving. Actually everything is going along with a magnificent chaotic smoothness to it all. Had my tanks been delivered on time I would have to move them. Now all I have to do is figure out where...

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Originally Posted By: TEXAS715
What size are you fish? I haven't run into any of these issues but I might not be keeping them in the tank as long as you are. I hatch them and keep them until they are about 5-6" before they go into the pond.


In the last video I posted a few days ago when the water was clear they looked to be a little bigger than that. I like the water being clear. Adding plants to feed the fish is another idea instead of feeding them algae. They seem to be growing incredibly fast. Even the goldfish I put in there are way bigger than the ones in the pool they came out of. I want to try either floating raft or a bell siphon bed. I think I can grow a better variety in a gravel bed with a bell siphon but I haven't figured out how to do it with the huge fiberglass tubs I am getting without adding massive amounts of pumps or drastically modifying the setup... Whatever design I come up with I now see is going to also have to have move-ability factored in.

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Gravel beds can get very, very, very, very heavy. Next time I am going with a different bedding material.


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Maybe I should go floating raft? I want to grow more than just lettuce and basil though... I think I'm going to have to have a low cost soil like material to do that. My six new fiberglass tanks are 8x17x2'. Gravel or floating-raft is the only affordable alternative to my knowledge. Volcanic gravel is my choice.

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Actually floating raft is my choice. No heavy gravel. I would just like to be able to grow more then just lettuce.

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Today my water has cleared it's self up enough to see the bottom again. I noticed the algae is also turning brown again and almost gone in the pool so I added a teaspoon of ammonium sulfate to get it growing again. I didn't even bother testing for ammonia. I just assumed it was back down to zero.

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Check out growing plants using NFT (http://www.diy-guides.com/building-a-nft-hydroponic-system/). Made a system using 4" plastic field tile that worked great. It keeps growing media to a minimum and with a little ingenuity can be added to your system without extra pumps.

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I don't think NFT will work with my new setup... I am getting six tubs made of fiberglass that measure 2 feet deep 7 feet across and 17 feet long for less than a hundred dollars each that used to be part of some enviornmental research project. The guy says they cost them over 3000 a piece new and they have some sort of air setup already in them. He has put me off till next weekend but says they are all loaded on a semi and ready to be dropped off on his trip to Arizona. When I get the tanks I'll photograph them and figure out how to best put them to good use. I'm already thinking of making one an ornamental fish tank in front of my apartment complex in addition to the tilapia project. I have only seen a picture of them so far stacked next to a container and they are huge!

Wow... I checked out Amazon.com and the pool I paid 120+ for in my videos is less than 75 dollars, free shipping! I noticed all of the steel frame pools are really super cheap right now. I wish I had waited! NOW is the time to order swimming pools guys!

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Yep, end of summer and people don't want to store them over the winter, or the kids didn't use them enough so they aren't going to bother with them next year.


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Have you ever flown over a city and noticed most of the swimming pools are green with algae?

Could there be that many people raising Tilapia in their back yard shocked

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Maybe raising fish in swimming pools will become a fad some day. I been thinking of raising mosquito fish inside my filters to keep bugs from laying eggs in them. The trick is, how do I keep the mosquito fish inside the filters so they don't get eaten by the tilapia. I wish I had bought a bunch of twelve dollar kiddie pools before the stores all sold out of them. Now I can't buy them at any price. I suspect the same thing will be happening soon with the bigger pools online.

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The teaspoon of fertilizer I put in a few days ago really went a long way this time. It seems like I only need to keep the algae growing faster than the fish eat it. This time instead of cutting down on fish food I kept on feeding them heavily and there is no slow down on the algae. It is also very dark green. Perhaps the trick is to keep feeding them enough food so that they don't eat all the algae and I wont have to add anymore fertilizer. Or at least not as much.

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Originally Posted By: surfsteve
Maybe raising fish in swimming pools will become a fad some day. I been thinking of raising mosquito fish inside my filters to keep bugs from laying eggs in them. The trick is, how do I keep the mosquito fish inside the filters so they don't get eaten by the tilapia. I wish I had bought a bunch of twelve dollar kiddie pools before the stores all sold out of them. Now I can't buy them at any price. I suspect the same thing will be happening soon with the bigger pools online.

Maybe it will be a fad, and you will be a trendsetter like Paris Hilton. Tilapia pools are "haht" wink

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Originally Posted By: JKB
Have you ever flown over a city and noticed most of the swimming pools are green with algae?

Could there be that many people raising Tilapia in their back yard shocked



Before the ban on tilapia posession in CA, I sold to several customers in SoCal that are raising them in inground swimming pools.



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Why did they ban Tilapia in CA?

Last edited by JKB; 10/03/10 11:09 AM.
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Originally Posted By: JKB
Have you ever flown over a city and noticed most of the swimming pools are green with algae?


Those are foreclosures. grin


If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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Originally Posted By: JKB
Why did they ban Tilapia in CA?


Because they can possibly survive southern California winters, and become invasive. And the govenator said so.

Sadly it is a good decision, because people have no sense, and think releasing domestic fish into the wild is just fine. And even if they take precautions to prevent escapes, accidents happen. And tilapia are hardy,adaptable, omnivorous, and prolific. Once they are there, they are hard to get rid of.

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Originally Posted By: Rainman


Before the ban on tilapia posession in CA, I sold to several customers in SoCal that are raising them in inground swimming pools.


Rex,

Are you sure they banned them completely? I thought I saw they allowed O. Mossambicus south of the Tehachapi Mountains?

Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 10/03/10 08:25 PM.

If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.






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