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  1. #1
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    Hello from Orlando Florida!

    I recently got into aquaponics. The thought started with using Earth Buckets and some other self water planter containers for a small veggy garden. I came across aquaponics and was intrigued at first but then just couldn't stop reading (this forum and any site I could find)

    I started by building a trial 4 foot x 8 foot Deep water culture bed at my job. I have a warehouse with some unused space. The bed has not grown anything yet but I wanted to get it to cycle first. The water capacity of my bed, filter (small bio filter about 1L of ceramic bioballs), and fish holding tank is about 150 gallons. I had 20 goldfish in there for over a month and once I saw Nitrates go up and ammonia go down to a safe level, I decided to plant some lettuce. I have my lettuce on day 3 as I type this, in Oasis horticubes with no real sign of green yet but definitely sprouting action. I purchased 4 light fixtures. There are 4 bulbs in each fixture and it's 4' long. The lights are roughly 1 foot away from the water and at waterline they shine about 200-240 FC in all parts of the bed.

    With my cycle complete I decided to get tilapia to stock the tank. I purchased 200 fingerlings locally thinking the bio mass would be small. Well the fingerlings ranged in size from 1-4" maybe even 5" in length. So needless to say I overstocked my tank thinking I was going to have a bunch of little babies not bigger fish haha.

    I put the fingerlings in Friday during the day.

    Friday water readings were.
    1ppm Ammonia
    3-4ppm Nitrite
    20ppm Nitrate

    Saturday was
    2ppm Ammonia
    3-4ppm Nitrite
    20ppm Nitrate

    Saturday I decided to enlarge their filter. I got some bulkheads, a 16 gallon tote, 3 cubic foot bags of polyester filter fiber, some arcylic panels to silicone in as water dividers, and 4 gallons of SeaChem Matrix on order to add when it comes in.

    So far the filter is running with the 3 cubic foot bags of polyester fiber. I scattered the fiber into the tote and placed the acrylic panels so the water enters on the top of one side, is forced up and over a divider, and then into the polyester and ceramic media before exiting out the bottom of the other side of the tote.

    I hope the bacteria on the ceramic media starts to reproduce fast and spread to the now much larger filter.

    It's Sunday now and I checked my levels again and I'm now at.

    4-8ppm Ammonia (test jumps to 8ppm after 4ppm and it's in between in color)
    5+ppm Nitrites
    20ppm Nitrates

    I just hope the tilapia don't die from the ammonia before the filter increases in biological size.

    I have a 55 gallon tank sitting that I was going to set up as a breeder tank for future stocks. I might start it up and spread the load out a little bit on the main system.

    Does anyone have any suggestions to what I should do?

    My thoughts are spread out some of the larger fish into the 55 gallon now and let nature take it's course on the other tank. If a couple must die let it be. I just don't want them all to die lol.

    Ever since I got into this I just want to do more. My warehouse has a lot of space but problem is there's no natural light besides 4-5 FC through the small skylights. It would be nice to have long grow beds run through the whole place and big tanks of fish. Maybe that's what the future holds for me. We'll just have to see.

    Thanks for providing a great place for a newbie to learn!

    Walter

  2. #2
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Hello from Orlando Florida!

    The ammonia and/or nitrite can definitely kill your fish.

    What's your pH? How's the water look and smell?

  3. #3
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    Re: Hello from Orlando Florida!

    PH was 6.8 down from the initial 7.8-8.0 during startup and before cycle started. I did not mention but I plan on getting crushed coral to buffer the PH from the nitrification process. The water on Saturday morning was cloudy and reddish (I fed them on Friday an hour after acclimating them but not on Saturday at all since I wanted to slow the ammonia production down). I think it turned cloudy because of the food and fish poop that wasn't being filtered properly. Once the polyester was added in the new bigger filter, the polyester is reddish brown (like a clay color almost). And the water is back to being nearly crystal clear. The water does not appear to smell. I didn't particularly put my nose to it. But I did not notice anything either while I was at the shop tonight checking up on them. There were 2 dead fish but 2 out of 200 in 2 days didn't seem too bad. I fed them tonight. After I fed them I took the tests and realized ammonia was between 4-8ppm. Otherwise I wouldn't have fed them tonight either.

    Oh yea water temp is at 82F. I have 2 300w heaters running in the filter. With the goldfish I ran the system at around 60-65 degrees depending on the outside temp. My warehouse is not insulated. Since this is trials right now I'm not worried about insulating the tanks, etc. I'm learning from my mistakes now so when I expand the system I do it once and right.

  4. #4
    Moderator urbanfarmer's Avatar
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    Re: Hello from Orlando Florida!

    Your pH is good. Do not let it go any higher until you get the ammonia under control. If the pH drops lower, that's fine for now until you get it under control. The pH is keeping your fish alive, so to speak.

  5. #5
    Moderator davidstcldfl's Avatar
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    Re: Hello from Orlando Florida!

    Hi Walter, welcome to the forum..

    You mentioned a deep water cultuer bed....how deep is it ?
    A 'typical' DWC bed is 1 ft deep. One your size, would have aprox 240 gallons just by it's self.
    The reason I'm asking about the water volume is because...I was going to mention adding salt to your system. You need to have a pretty good idea of the volume of water to get the ratio correct.

    Salt will help the fish in a few ways. For a good read about salt and it's use, and it's just one page...search for an article titled...Salt for fish health. When you also see the words 'aquaponic' and 'lynx', you'll know you found the one I'm refering to.

    Sorry, The rules say...I can't give a direct link to it, since it's at another aquaponic site.

    Walter, I hope to hear about 'how well' the system and fish are doing next time...
    "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - President Ronald Reagan

  6. #6
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    Re: Hello from Orlando Florida!

    +1 david.. with those readings though, i'd do 25% water change, then salt to 3ppt
    your new filter will take a while to cycle, don't feed anything until your levels get lower

  7. #7
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    Re: Hello from Orlando Florida!

    Thanks guys. I'll do a water change today. I didn't do it yesterday because I have to lug water from the sink on the other end of the warehouse in 5 gallon buckets so today I was going to purchased a 100 foot hose to make it easier. As for the salt, I added salt when I started the system. I believe, I added 1 Tablespoon per 10 gallons or whatever the salt container said was the correct dosage. I bought it at Petsmart down the road in the milk like carton container.

    My DWC is about 5" deep currently. I have some room to add water still to the system. I used 2x10 wood for the sides and poly sheeting for my trial bed. Bigger beds I was going to use EDPM rolls, but did not want to spend the money on a big roll right now. My fish are held in a hard plastic pond. The ones you dig a hole in the ground and place the rigid liner into. It's approximately 3 feet wide and 1.5 foot deep. It's about 1 foot deep in water line. It has some "shelves" built in so I'm guessing it's about 40-50 gallons only.

    I will post up some pictures of my setup shortly. I was trying to get them off my phone last night but it wasn't cooperating.

    I will keep the thread updated and it's very nice to see some locals around me too. I hope to not only be a newbie here but a contributor as my system matures.

    *btw found the article and will try to salt the system to 3ppt. I did read multiple pages on his site a couple weeks back but did not see that one.

  8. #8
    Moderator davidstcldfl's Avatar
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    Re: Hello from Orlando Florida!

    Quote Originally Posted by NeverResting
    I did read multiple pages on his site
    'Her' site ...TcLynx is a fiesty little 'lady'.
    "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." - President Ronald Reagan

  9. #9
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    Re: Hello from Orlando Florida!

    I got the photos to email when I tried again so here they are.

    Oops about this his comment, I simply did not know but of course this passion is equally followed by both sexes.

    My wife is the only one that hates this whole thing. Partially because she says it's taken my time from her away. She shows no interest in the fish or the growing part as I tried to get her involved.
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  10. #10
    Moderator JCO's Avatar
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    Re: Hello from Orlando Florida!

    Welcome and keep those photos coming
    JCO
    Irish eyes are always smiling but
    • "In the eyes of the world, you are only as good as your last success"
    so never forget
    • "MAN IS ONLY LIMITED BY HIS IMAGINATION"

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