REALLY Bummed .......

[jackalope]

After getting my setup all built and running, I'm almost ready to give up ...... the past couple of weeks, I've lost three or four fish, but today, I lost 5, one of which was my prize large Goldie .... about 4 1/2 inches long ...... he was the strongest of all, the "Bully of the Bayou", as Doug Kershaw would say ...... needless to say, I'm depressed ....not at the thought of losing valuable fish, but that I can't seem to keep them alive

I don't know if it's the water or not, I have no way to test it other than the master test kit and for chlorine. I've been putting water conditioner in it lately in case it's the metals from the copper and brass in the water lines, whenever I add 5 gallons of water, and I'm feeding them Goldfish Disks food from HBH, and Koi and Goldfish Floating Pellets from Kaytee. All of my readings for ph, ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and chlorine are good .... the ph is a little high 8.0, but it seems that whatever I do to lower the ph, it stays right at the 8.0 anyways. That's what the ph is when it comes out of the tap and sits over night, so I don't try adding lemon juice or anything else to bring it down ..... I'm under the impression that the ph is more for the plants than the fish ....... btw, the plants are doing fine.

Oh, and I did find something weird .... on one of the granite stones I keep in the bottom (to hold down the suction hose of the filter), there was a small dime-sized ball of slime or gel ..... clear and soft, but didn't break apart when I tried to smear it. I've taken out all of the granite, in case itwas some kind of fish disease that shouldn't be there. I don't know what Malachite Green will do to the groceries I've planted, so I can't treat the fish with that unless I quit pumping water to the plants ...... catch 22, I'd say ........

Sorry about the rant, I just needed to vent!

[wolfracer]

Sorry to hear about your run of bad luck. I believe that I read on one of the aussie sites that granit or limestone will buffer the ph and keep it high. Hang in there. I bet your going to figure it out.

[jackalope]

Sorry to hear about your run of bad luck. I believe that I read on one of the aussie sites that granit or limestone will buffer the ph and keep it high. Hang in there. I bet your going to figure it out.

Limestone, I could understand, but Granite? Please don't let it be Granite, because probably half of the pea gravel in my grow-beds is some sort of Granite, I'd think

[badflash]

I'm betting you just don't have a good cycle on your system. With weather changing like it is the metabolic processes change quickly and if there isn't enough good bacteria, you end up with floaters. I've found that black mollies are the toughest of them all when it comes to cycling. I also use pond snails.

[jackalope]

I dunno, somethin's gone haywire ......... now my autosiphon on the bottles has gone TU .... it isn't breaking like it should, it's just overflowing instead of draining the system, the tubing from the pump is all gunked up with crud, and has gone flat, even though there should be pressure on it.

I shut the pump down, and let the bottle system drain dry, filled it back up, but the autosiphon still doesn't drain out, it just overflows ..... I guess I'll have to cut it apart and see what's wrong .... and just as I was going to put pics up ........ Oh, well, at least I have a few fish left and have some plants growing ........ maybe I can water them by hand ......... and BTW, I know it ain't roots clogging the system, the plants haven't got that big yet ........ bummer........

[badflash]

You using a loop or a real auto siphon? Gooped up could sure be the issue, especially with a bad cycle. These things need constant attention, so just plan on it. Pump & tubing cleaning all the time. If you have a true auto-siphon, low flow can be an issue cause by a gooped up system. If the flow gets low enough it dribbles over and never siphons.

[wolfracer]

Sorry to hear about your run of bad luck. I believe that I read on one of the aussie sites that granit or limestone will buffer the ph and keep it high. Hang in there. I bet your going to figure it out.

Limestone, I could understand, but Granite? Please don't let it be Granite, because probably half of the pea gravel in my grow-beds is some sort of Granite, I'd think

It wasn't granite I read about, it was marble, I went back and re read that post sorry to misspeak on that.

[badflash]

Marble and limestone won't directly cause clogging, but can make your pH shoot up into the high 8's. No good for most fish. Some plants love it though. I might try in in a worm based bioponic fishless system.

[JeffW]

I have lost plants and fish but and each time I do I learn why

This is why I am working on the worm juice feeding system as worms are a lot easier to
deal with in my view but I need to prove it to myself first.

[jackalope]

I got the siphon working again, bought a new hose, I guess I'll have to get me a 6' bottle-brush, this could get expensive. I might have some 1" black poly that I could cut a chunk off of, and put it around the clear tubing to keep it from getting algae, whaddya think? Funny, I was just thinking the same thing as you guys, if my fish die, I'll have to try out worms ... I was even wondering about crawdads, but the way these three females get along, that wouldn't work either .......

I'd much rather use fish though, I want something I can eat ...... I lost 6 more today, there's one that isn't looking too good, that will probably kick the bucket tomorrow ...... he let me pick him up as long as i didn't take him out of the water ..... I looked at him closely, and it looks like he's got little hairs growing off his underside .... they disappear when you take him out of the water, but put him back in, and they come right back. I guess I'll have to join a Goldfish forum now ...... I'm getting on too many forums ...... haven't had time to check out the Aussie forums lately, been getting our mobile set up and cleaned up for a move in, hopefully by early summer :crosses fingers:.

My worm cocoons came in today, so I'm building my worm bins so I can get them started in a few weeks. The lady I bought them from, said it takes 30 - 45 days for them to hatch, and in 60 to 90 days they will be breeding more ...... I bought 600 cocoons, and each cocoon is supposed to give you from 1 to 3 worms ...... I thought I'd try it out this way instead of buying a bunch of already-hatched worms, just for the fun of it ..... plus, it was about 50% cheaper than anyone else on ebay

The wife was not happy when I came home with three crawdads, and even less happy when I told her I bought some worms ....... wait till I tell her about the BSFL this summer ...... after I get some Marmorkrebs from Jack . I think I've got enough lumber left over to build a large doghouse, because I think I'm going to need it

BTW Jeff and Jack, I hope you guys are ready for another good winter storm, I think we're going to be sending you one right soon, we're freezing and snowing out today and tonight ........ put away those bermuda shorts and get out the mukluks for another one