Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait FHM Spawning In Tank

I am surpised but I have yet to see any type of bird trying to eat anything.

The fry stay at the top so would be easy to get.

My water is finally starting to clear up, not sure why but I can actually see all the fish in it now, and the 1 Tilapia that is in there is really fat.

He chase a few of the FHM and GSH around, it is funny.

Kind of shy when I throw in the GFC though, so not sure what it is eating.

Now for what ever reason my Nitrite levels are high, everything was working just fine so not sure what happened.

Are there any plants that may cause a problem with this?

I have Water Hyacinths and also some other pond weed I pulled from our pond to give the fry some cover, but it sure does smell bad.

I am thinking about taking it out as I am not sure what it is and if it may be hurting the water more than it is protecting the fish.

Ok I am needing to add some more air to this tank, are there any experts on here to give some advice?

I would consider making something myself if someone has ideas, or could just buy something as well.

The tank is 300 gallons, and has a few hundred fish in it, or should unless more died then what I thought when I stocked them, kind of hard to count fry.

Thanks

With 300 gallons, just about any minnow tank pump ought to work. Are you exchanging the water?

When you say minnow pump is that like an agitator the bait shops have?

I also have Water Hyacinths in the tank, probably taking up 70-80 % of the surface area of the tank, would this cause any problems?

I think it helps keep the water cool, and filter it some of the algae etc. out, but if it is taking oxygen, or other good stuff from the fish please let me know and I will tank some if not all of them out if need be.

I have not changed it as much as I would like to, we have Chloramines in our city water so I have to shell out some money for the stuff to remove it, unless someone knows where I can get some for a good price.

Or if there is anything else I can do to clean my water.

If it was chlorine I am sure it would evaporate off in a day or two with these hot temps, but the city thought they would change and the water has not been the same since. (Nasty stuff)

Any ideas?

I know very little about raising fish in tanks. It is my understanding that only water evaporates.

Get a large double valve air pump from a pet store with the largest finest bubbling air stones they have. That should work fine. I'd be changing 1/3 of your water per week. With that the water hyacinths shouldn't be an issue.

Just wanted to make sure the Water Hyacinths would not be a problem if there were too many. I started out with just 20 plants 2-3 months ago and now the tank is covered, and I have some in a tub above the water to help filter even more and to create a water fall back into the tank.

Was not sure if they help with the oxygen or take it out of the water was my concern as well.

I may consider selling a few of the plants to recover some of my cost of the plants, plus they just keep growing and make it hard to feed the fish.

Although when the fish do come up to peck on the food, it makes it a little easier to catch them as they get trapped in the root system of the plant.

Thanks

They don't add nor take O2, but they do help remove nutrients. They were used in water treatment plants to help clean the water.

well I think I need to figure out some how to add more oxygen, and remove solids.

I thought my 1300gph pump would pick more of them up but I may need another one or something else.

Need to get my Nitrites down.

Ok my water has a ton of suspended material in it, not sure why my pump and filter are not taking it out.

Any ideas as that I could do to help remove this material?


Also they other night my pump slowed down do to my filters pre filter being so dirty, so I just shut it off since it was so later at night and work on it first thing in the morning.

To my surprise the water seemed really clean, and then I noticed that everything that was suspended had fallen to the bottom and covered the tank. Looked to be an inch or so deep (not sure though)

What is the material on the bottom, waste, algae, bacteria?

Would it be best to just let this settle and leave it there, or figure out some way to remove it?

If needing to remove it what should I use to do so?

Anyone have any ideas, I want to make sure I do not start killing my fish.

Thanks

You should be managing that tank like it was an aquarium. Filtering, removing waste, etc.

Well with an aquarium I would completely drain the tank and add new water.

But with 300 gallons that really is not an option right now, plus our water has chloramines not chlorine or I would just fill up some buckets and another tank and let it sit for a few days to gas off.

Are there other ways to get chloramines out of the water besides using the $300 bottle of remover?

Also my homemade bio-filter is made from PVC and filled with Bio-Balls. Should I ever clean the Bio-Balls when they get too dirty or would that just kill all of the bacteria and my cycle would have to start over?

My pre-filter in my 1300 gph pump clogs about every day or two, should I just remove it and let the water go strait to another tub I have filled with foam and water hyacinths to filter the water as well?

Or should I just leave the pre-filter in and clean it every 1-3 days or when the water flow is low coming out of my bio-filter?

Thanks

vitamin c and air to remove the chloramines

If the bio filter is getting plugged up, either the pre-filter isn't doing it's job or the bio filter is way too small. It sounds like the pre filter needs to be bigger. I'd be cleaning the pre-filter as often as needed so it didn't slow down the water flow and think about building or getting a much larger one, plus getting (or building) a larger bio filter. I've seen pre-filters for 300 gallon RAS tanks that were made from 55 gallon barrels and they still needed cleaning every month.

If the filters are working properly, you shouldn't need to be doing 100% water changes.

Ok just got my two Agitators in and hooked one up last night. Seem to be working pretty good for now as there were not as many fish piping this morning.

My question is how long should I run the agitator?

24/7, mornings, evenings,

Should I hook both of them up or would this cause too much water movement?

Please let me know ASAP as I turned it off this morning for a little bit to give the motor a rest. But can turn it back on at lunch if need be.

Thanks

"Seem to be working pretty good for now as there were not as many fish piping this morning."


If you still have fish piping at the surface, I'd run it longer, 24/7 if necessary.

Do you have a qater quality test kit? Something like the Master Kit would be very handy to have:

http://www.stoneycreekequip.com/form/kits.htm

I have something like the 5 in 1 strips. I had tested it before and sure it is not any better.

The Nitrates and Nitrites were high.

I kind of expected it to happen with the number of fish I have in the tank and the home made bio filter probably is not large enough for the load. I need to figure out a way to haul water from a pond or lake or something to remove the chloromine from our nasty city water.

I have the filter pump up and back out like a shower to help with air, been running a smaller aerator, and now have these agitators which will probably add more than the other two combined. I only have one running now, have to figure out how to mount the other and get the cord to the power.

The was testing fine when we had all the rain as I would be able to exchange up to 50% of the water as the new rain fall came in.

I did notice a FHM had died last night, the Tilapia were pecking at it, not sure if they will eat it or not or I may just take it out of the tank if it is still floating. If it is already on the bottom I am sure either the Plecostomus or the crayfish will eat it.

Thanks

Anyone have experience using the following:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultimate-Water-Condi...=item3cada7233b

I just got some from a friend and was going to give it a shot, to do a partial or full water change.

But wanted to get some advice from someone that has used it before.

Thanks

I haven't used it, but it looks like what you need.

I need to read up on it a little more to see how much to use for what I am doing and how long to wait before adding my fish back in.

I wonder if I could add it to the water already in the tank and then ad some city water?

Also do you think it would help the current water just to add some of this stuff to it?

Have you thought about a carbon block filter? I don't think there is a better way to remove chlorine from water before you put it into your tank.

Where would I get one of those?