Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Raising Broodfish in Aquaponics

Which fish died? I don't remember which species you had.

Lost tilapia in an aquarium couple weeks back. No heater, tilapia doing fine, air temperature dropped 25 degrees and all tilapia were dead the day after.

The green sunfish are the ones that died, but this particular batch of fish was used primarily for a jumpstart anyways.
The pH usually hovers around the 7.4-7.6 mark...
The only reason I wasn't too concerned about the Ammonia reading was because I'm still technically cycling my system, and figured it'd be beneficial as far as bacteria growth to not try and lower it artificially. Also, even though it is not optimal for fishkeeping, I hadn't noticed any adverse effects until the fish kill happened.
(Edit note: average pH value was incorrect)

Test results today are as follows:
Ammonia- .12 ppm
Nitrite- almost zero
Nitrate- 1 ppm
pH- 7.4
(Note: The water has changed over the past few days from emerald green to more pea-soup like.) I'm guessing that as more nitrate became available, a plankton bloom was triggered and then lowered the nitrate levels?
Cecil, after you brought up the affect pH had on ionizing ammonia, I read into the subject. Since my pH is typically higher than what it was during the fish kill, I'm fairly convinced that ammonia toxicity did not kill these fish.

I dont think it is relevant to the fish kill but i almost always get suspended algae bloom this time of year as the water temps warm up. It usually dies off after 2-3 weeks.

algae blooms in aquaculture are usually undesirable but the affects are mild. They do cause more PH fluctuation throughout the day and at night time when plants cant photosynthesize the algae can use up/depleate oxygen the fish needs. This is easily countered with aeration.

There can be similar type issues when the algae bloom dies off and starts decomposing.

Its usually a good idea to try to shade your fish tanks and any exposed water to limit algae blooms.

brian

Thank goodness I've never had any algae issues indoors. Outside the tilapia seem to pick the algae clean from the tank walls (along with snails), and if I'm doing aquaponics it seems the tomato plant consume enough of the nitrates that fuel algae.

As far as adding pure ammonia instead of fish to finish cycling the system, I can't seem to source any at the local grocery stores. I've read about using fish feed to add nutrients and ammonia to the biofilter... Is this an effective way to cycle the system?

Also, I placed my Optimal Bluegill Feed order tonight and already can't wait to start feeding it to the fish!

I got my ammonia at a hardware store (Ace). Just make sure it's non foaming. If you shake it and it doesn't foam you are good to go.

If it does foam that means it has detergent in it and you don't want that.