Neglect

[Aloha Don]

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….

[JCO]

As Badflash says "The best fertilizer is the farmer's shadow"

[topz]

Man sorry to hear that. But every loss is lesson learned. Thank you or sharing the reminder.

[Blizzard]

I check my system twice per day. When feeding the fish. A quick look in the morning before work and an hour or so after work. But then again my system I can see from here at my desk. I can see the water levels I can hear the syphons.

Sorry about your loss. Aloha Don.

But I check my levels every week. Its part of the fun for me. it’s the relaxation of listening to the water flow. The thought of having to go to the fish and tackle shop to get a big enough net to catch my fish. Come harvest time.

[aquaally]

We are all here to learn by trial or error, weather it be ours or someone else's. Thanks for sharing Aloha Don. Aquaally

[Apollo]

How low can the pH levels get before it damages or destroys the Bio Filter? Once the Bio Filter is damaged your ammonia stops being covered to nitrites then to nitrates.

Check and control all levels...it's much easier to correct it, if your catch something in the early stages but it does major damage to your AP system.