Just a reminder - more for myself than anyone else -
continually check, monitor and adjust your system as it matures.
My system has been running for about a year with no problems …until yesterday.
I had one tilapia belly up….
I removed the dead and started looking for reason why it died.
I have not checked the water in my system since I built and cycled it a year ago.
I thought everything was ok because I had successful crops of tomato, strawberry, eggplant and basil.
Testing showed high ammonia and extremely low PH.
I changed about 40% of the water in my system and added tap water (ph about 6.8-7)
I did not have any shell grit or egg shells so I added about 1 Tbl of Baking soda to a bucket of fish water, dissolved and placed in my system. PH eventually rose to about 6.2.
Guess what we had for breakfast….I boiled the eggshells, rinsed and placed them under the return from plants to fish tank…performed another water exchange (25%)
Just checked and ammonia is still high but the PH has stabilized around 6.4 for now.
Lost 2 medium size tilapia because I failed to properly maintain my system…
Continue to always stay vigilant in AP to keep the balance …then we can always enjoying the harvest without troubleshooting the problems we create….