Hello from Southern California

[Riverside]

Hello,

I've been involved with hydroponics for the past five years, and last year decided to try aquaponics; I purchased 25 tilapia fingerlings last November, and they've gotten a bit bigger in my 90 gallon tank:

Six of the seven females in the pic are carrying eggs; I'm having no problems having them spawn, but a big problem keeping the fry alive; hoping to pick up tips and tricks to reduce my infant mortality!

I've torn down my old hydroponics greenhouse and am rebuilding it for aquaponics. I tend to take a lot of pictures so I'll be sharing my progress with the group.

I look forward to learning a lot from you folks.

[Riverside]

I take the fry from the momma after the second or third day of momma fishie trying to chase the others away from her (and usually has a dark band across the front of her face);
I place the fry in their own 10 gallon tank with good bio & mech filtration, low/zero ammonia, fully cycled, feed 6-7 times a day with pulverized flake food, change 20% of water 2X a week;

Most of the fry make it to 2 weeks, but about 2-2 1/2 weeks after "birth" I lose about 2/3's of them in 2-3 days;the remaining fry get put in to my "teenager" tank, very rare for me to lose one in that tank.

I've read that I should expect about a 20% mortality rate on each spawn, but this delayed dying off takes a good 2/3's of them; they're not getting eaten because they are all the same size; I've already made that mistake, putting new ones in with their slightly older cousins, which was not a good thing to do;

[davidstcldfl]

Hi Riverside...welcome.
I too, am trying to get some breeding going. Sounds like your ahead of me.

[JCO]

Welcome to the show....pull up an easy chair, relax and stay awhile. New voices are always a welcome addition to our family..! Whatever questions you have on you mind, this is the place to get the answers :mrgreen:

[badflash]

I think you don't have enough water volume and bio activity. It is rare for me to lose fry or fingerlings unless I let them get overcrowded. At the first sign of floater you need to thin them way out. I have a 4 tank system as my main mossie breeder. 1 20 gal for the breeders. 3 other for the grow out tanks. They share a common sump so there is no shock when they are transferred.

[Riverside]

badflash-
I am waiting on a donated 20 gallon which would solve the water volume question; as to the biofilter it keeps the ammonia/nitrites way way down, but of course dumping 100 fry into a system loads it a lot, I'm thinking the bigger water volume would help address that issue; working towards a common sump in an old 50 gallon tank I need to repair; final system should be the 90 gallon main tank, two 20's a 15 and the common sump;

earnie-
I used to put the momma fishie in an isolation tank also, but had the same problems, as per the attached pics now I just net the momma, put her in a small plastic box, and, using nitrile gloves hold the momma gently so she can't squirm around and stick me with her spines and "milk" the fry out of her; takes about a minute and then momma's back into the main tank; I'm not sure of the exact type of tilapia; pH and temps all good; if the fry still have yolk sacs I let the momma suck them back up and put her back in the main tank until they're "done" <g>

To everyone else thanks for the warm welcome.

[badflash]

Here is what I think happens in a small tank. It is not a lot different than over havesting a mature aquaponics system. Put in a large fish with babies and the beneficial bacteria ramp up to deal with it. Once she is removed and only the tiny babies remain, they starve and their decay produces an ammonia spike. This effects the fish and also feeds the remaining bacteria which multiply like mad and by the time the fish show stress, the spike is long gone.

In a multi tank system the bio load doesn't change. No spike.

[Riverside]

an ammonia spike was the first thing I thought of the first time it happened, but the ammonia never got more than .25; ppm, probably about half that; I know smaller tanks are less forgiving, but 1) momma fishie never gets into the fry tank; 2) temperature, pH, ammonia all good; I did find an article about massive fry death due to gas supersaturation, maybe I'll make a degasser for the fry tank, but I'm still clueless as to the reasons why I have so many fry die.

[badflash]

Something I do with my fry is thin them to about 100 per 20 gallons once they reach 1". They jostle each other a lot and that can open small cuts that lead to infection, then that spreads to the general population. Disease is always present and if the immune system gets depressed there is big trouble.

[Riverside]

That's a great idea; I should be getting another 20 gallon tank this week which works out perfect; so far I've been very lucky as to disease in the big tank;

BTW, I believe you raise your fish in aquariums, how do you control/remove the prodigious amounts of poop? Internal filter, external with overflow box, ???

[badflash]

Check:
Home Brew Filters (http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/showthread.php?22-Home-Brew-Filters)
and
My 700 gallon basement system (http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/showthread.php?33-My-700-gallon-basement-system)

[Riverside]

Wow you've got some monster tilapia in there <g>. I'll have to study your setup more in detail, looks like a lot of really neat ideas. I really like your cheapo bead filter, have to try that...

Mostly, I was looking for ways to get the poop out of the main 90 gallon aquarium w/out setting up a siphon disaster waiting to happen. I've made a custom overflow box and have the return water flow flowing towards it with a large airstone right below it, which kinda works in getting the poop out of the main tank. Definitely looking for better ideas to accomplish this,

[badflash]

I'll shoot you a video of a 90 gallon glass tank I have about 25 Rocky Mountain Whites in. I have an overflow system that takes suction from the bottom. Water goes in at the other end. Active fish makes sure the stuff gets moved towards the overflow & out. Very little solids stay in the tank.

[badflash]

OK, check
My 700 gallon basement system (http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/showthread.php?33-My-700-gallon-basement-system&p=3101&viewfull=1#post3101)

[Riverside]

Saw your Rocky Mountain Whites, beautiful! I've heard of them but have never seen them yet; are they particularly aggressive? Hard to keep?

Yes, saw the intake at the bottom, but what happens during a power failure? Does it siphon the water out? Or, if not, how did you arrange it to break suction after a power failure? That's the part I can't wrap my head around;

[badflash]

The overflow is at the top. The top is open at that T used in case anything clogs up. If there is a power failure it simply drains to the level where the pipe comes through the glass.

[Riverside]

Ah, "through the glass", so it's a drain not a siphon; well, I'm not quite ready to start drilling holes in my tank, so I suppose I'm still looking for a design that has a siphon tube starting at the bottom of the tank, comes over the top and goes to a sump below that will break suction if power fails, I've thought about using a 12 volt valve that will open up during a failure; thanks anyway

[badflash]

Look closely at the center of the tank. You will see a strainer at the bottom and the loop seal towards the top.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/badflash/tilapia/P2170006.jpg

Water is comming in from the hose at the top. It drains to the tank below that ends up going to the sump.

[Riverside]

Loop seal? new term for me, kinda like a sink's p-trap?

In the (admittedly) rough sketch below, using such a loop cause the water to siphon out when at level "A" but stop when at level "B"? If so you've taught me a new trick!

[badflash]

Close, no cigar.
The 1st loop goes over the side of the tank.
The top of the 2nd loop has a T and vent. It must be lower than the side of the tank and the level of this T sets the water level.

[Riverside]

Sorry, badflash, can't visualize it; any chance of a diagram?

[davidstcldfl]

In the (admittedly) rough sketch below
LOL Riverside....it looks pretty good next to mine. Ex-wife took my drafting board....tilapia are taking my money I was saving for 'cad'... :lol:
If I can draw it...I can build it. My building is better then my drawing. When I'm in the field ,doing construction work...we're happy if we can find a cardboard box to draw an idea on... :roll:
http://i931.photobucket.com/albums/ad157/davidstcldfl/Badflashsdrain.jpg

If I understood Badflash correctly.....the 'tee', outside the tank, establishes the height of the water 'in' the tank.

[Riverside]

thanks, davidstcldfl; now I really feel dumb; after I saw your illustration I remembered that just last week I found a design for a "box-less" overflow design:

As Homer would say, "D-oh!" :D

[badflash]

Yes, that should work but davidstcldfl is closer to what I build. It is hard to get started unless you have two people or a plug. What I do is have a hard pipe going down to the sump from the T. I put a cork in it at the lower end and fill the line with water through the stand pipe. Put a plug in the stand pipe and remove the plug from the sump end. This should start the siphon. Once that happens you can pull the plug out of the stand pipe and start letting water into the tank.

[Riverside]

I was wondering how you started it <g> I'm definitely going to try this, thanks to both of you.

[jackalope]

It's a no-holes siphon Clik ;) (http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/showthread.php?111-The-No-Holes-Siphon) and Clik ;) (http://www.diyaquaponics.com/forum/showthread.php?101-My-Redneck-Aquaponics-System) with extensions and modifications :lol: from what I see ;)

Welcome to the forum Riverside, Welcome aboard!!

[badflash]

I didn't use PVC cement in mine as I wanted to be able to take it apart to clean it. Today I discovered it wasn't a great idea, at least with not doing periodic checks on tightness.

I suspect that one of my big horonorum, probably 5 pounds, got rambunctious and slammed into the downcommer and broke it lose. The siphon lost its fill and the tank started overflowing. Fortunately I was puttering down the basement and saw the water on the floor, probably 20 gallons or so. If I wasn't there it would have been about 120 gallon before the pump lost suction. Just a word to the wise to periodically check all connections to be sure they are tight. I'd gotten away with it for 2 years before I got snagged.

[jackalope]

I didn't use PVC cement in mine as I wanted to be able to take it apart to clean it. Today I discovered it wasn't a great idea, at least with not doing periodic checks on tightness.

I suspect that one of my big horonorum, probably 5 pounds, got rambunctious and slammed into the downcommer and broke it lose. The siphon lost its fill and the tank started overflowing. Fortunately I was puttering down the basement and saw the water on the floor, probably 20 gallons or so. If I wasn't there it would have been about 120 gallon before the pump lost suction. Just a word to the wise to periodically check all connections to be sure they are tight. I'd gotten away with it for 2 years before I got snagged. Nice time to be in the basement :!: Talk about luck :lol: :lol:

[davidstcldfl]

Using threaded male and female adapters/fittings or unions might be worth a few extra dollars....cheap insurance. Especially when you have 5 pound monsters swimming around... :mrgreen:

[Ambessa]

Hi Riverside;
I am in Sylmar, California. It is near LA. I just started building a small aquaponics, using 4" PVC pipes. I have a few question; I will be planting lettuce in the holes in the PVC pipe, but I do not know how big a hole should I make; and far apart should the holes be. Also I am having difficulty finding a hatchery or a place to buy tilapia and perch can you help me out?
Ambessa

[davidstcldfl]

Hi Ambessa , welcome to the forum.... :D

When you have time, please post an introduction in......A place To Say Hello.
That way more people will get to see your post and get to meet you. Also, folks that are in CA are more likely to see you. I think there are several here, that live in CA.

[urbanfarmer]

Welcome!