Dumb, dumb, dumb!

[Cecil]

Well it was official yesterday. I overloaded one of my RAS tanks and the ammonia was climbing to the 0.5 range, and would have probably rose even higher. And that was WITHOUT feeding and WITH water changes! Dumb, dumb, dumb!

I had sorted and removed most of the poorer bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) performers size wise, but apparently that wasn't enough after I added ~ 200 + yellow perch (Perca flavescens).

It probably didn't help that bacterial floc was knocked off the filter when a friend and I moved it to the separate tank. I'm hoping it wasn't too significant! However I'm glad the RBC is no longer in the fish tank with the fish where it gets loaded with particulate matter. Now it get clarified water from the clarifier. I know it's not getting 100 percent clean water but it's much better than rotating in the same tank as the fish. And of course there is more volume in the fish tank without the floating RBC, and now the system is up to 475 gallons vs. the previous
350 gallons although the tank volume is the same.

Anyway, drastic measures needed to be taken to reduce biomass and the bluegills all expect four have been booted outside to one of the ponds. My goal now is to grow them out to 12 inches in as short amount of time as possible for niche market I have and they won't do that very rapidly out in a pond over the winter.

I've also became more selective with the yellow perch sizes. I've now got 174 YOY 6 1/2 month old yellow perch (I hatched and feed trained these myself in one of the outside ponds) in the 300 gallon tank from about 5 to 7 1/4 inches, and four bluegills in the same size range that could be beneficial to the feeding activity as they are active surface pellet feeders.

I'll bet I now have least one 1/4th of or even less of the biomass I had when I overstocked the tank!

Now if the perch didn't get overstressed by two moves in two days (first time was when I brought them inside) and the elevated ammonia I should be O.K. I'm hoping my salinity of 0.2 percent will be an ally there. I'll keep monitoring water quality and will probably be doing more water changes than usual!

Moral of the story: Don't get overconfident and overload your system!


BTW here's the RBC in the separate tank. The barrel in the left corner is temporarily holding some fish to be moved. The coiled hose is a drain for the RBC tank in a stored position but still connected to the tank.

[Cecil]

Fish density significantly reduced with only 173 yellow perch and four bluegills in the tank. Ammonia today was 0.0 as were nitrites although I doubt my nitrites rose as they never do.

The yellow perch are extremely skittish as they were moved three times in as many days. But some are feeding and leaving four bluegills in the tank I think was a good idea. They seem to be back to feeding normally first and it seems the perch are following their lead.

Second RBC is rotating in a 180 gallon tank by itself and I added some Ammonia chloride to start feeding bacteria. I will inoculate with some material I've been keeping in my existing tank for several weeks hopefully jump starting the cycle process. I'm going to wait until morning when the water has warmed up a little.

Second fish tank is off to a metal shop/welder tomorrow to get the center drain sealing problems resolved and hopefully get the tank going.

[MarkEinOz]

Wow, Cecil you just gave a firm warning on what not to do with density!!

Let us know how you get on with the FT.

[Cecil]

Wow, Cecil you just gave a firm warning on what not to do with density!!

Let us know how you get on with the FT.

Yellow perch seem to be dong fine. However still very skittish when they see me. I've been keeping the light level as low as possible and throwing in hydrated sinking feed far enough back where they can't see me. Ammonia and nitrites still zero with only one partial water change.

[Cecil]

Yellow perch are feeding well three times a day and even taking feed on the surface if I don't pinch the hydrated feed to cause it to sink. Every day they become more aggressive. Water has developed a brownish coloration due to the tannins in the feed which helps them be less skittish vs. crystal clear water.

Three bluegills may or may not have jumped the tank as I found three dried up behind the tank the other day. Not sure if they are the three or so I put in to help get the perch going on feed or they jumped earlier. One thing I do know: Any concern about the basement getting to humid is unfounded. Humidity levels with two systems are still low enough to have dried those bluegills to crisp. No decomposition that I could detect.