Brand new system, seeking advice

[Jill Carrier]

Hi my name is Jill & live at Cashmere. my husband & i are setting up a system, just wondering if we are on the right track. We have 2 identical systems each with a 2000L fish tank, 2 sump tanks & 2 grow beds (1 gravel & 1 clay balls) giving us approximately 2000L of grow bed. The flood & drain cycle takes about 40 minutes. Initially we put about 20 feed fish in tank 1, a few died which we put in the grow bed to decompose & hopefully start the bacteria process. We added 100 silver perch average size 5g & planted some lettuce, pea & tomato seedlings 5 days ago. pH has been 7.4 steadily climbing to 7.6; ammonia started at 0.25 2 days ago, we added 180 mls of Geo liquid then. The fish seem happy, the water is clear; ammonia is up to 0.5ppm, pH 7.6, but no nitrites or nitrates. Water temp is 26 deg. My questions are, should I be worried about the ammonia level? at what level should I exchange the water? Do I need to be patient to let the bacteria establish?
I am keen to get our 2nd tank going so I would really appreciate your input. Our 2nd tank has few dead fish in the grow beds, it is circulating, pH is 7.4 with nothing else. Keen to stock this tank with Jade Perch ASAP.
Thanks Jill

[Outbackozzie]

An ammonia reading of around 1 at your water temp and ph is getting into danger territory. If it starts to get close to 1, start to do gradual water changes, I find a trickling hose works very well, and avoids the shock of 50% water changes.

How long has the system been running in total? Adding 100 SP to a new system of 2000l is pushing it.

What size are the fish - average size could mean anything. Average silvers are usually 250 - 500 grams. If yours are this big, you are in trouble.

2000l of growbed can support around 100 silver perch of 500g size, once fully cycled, however this takes a couple of months. Usually the bacteria colony grows as the fish do, keeping in balance.

Sounds like you have got the idea right, but need some patience. Push the bacteria too hard, and you will kill your fish.

[Jill Carrier]

Hi outbackozzie, thanks for your reply, our fish are really small, an average of 5grams each; so if I continue to monitor the ammonia closely & replace some of the water if it climbs any higher, things should be OK? Will the bacteria gradually start to work if I am patient? Thanks Jill

[Outbackozzie]

Aaah, good, you'll be fine. Probably wont even need to change water if you dont feed them.

Patience is the key

[Dufflight]

Welcome.
We like pictures.
And are you adding any salt to the system yet.

[aussieap]

feed sparingly, let ur bio catch up, won't take long for things to cycle in the warm weather. When ur ammo and nitrite drop to zero, start belting the food into them several times/day, as much as they will eat in 10-15 minutes.

You prolly won't get them grown out b4 winter, but if u can keep the water at a reasonable temp, christmas is looking good!

[Jill Carrier]

Not sure why I would need to add salt, can you explain?

[Outbackozzie]

Salt reduces NitrITE toxicity. Adding 1ppt (1kg per 1000l of water) will make even relatively high readings of nitrite survivable.

Normal pool salt. No additives.

A lot of AP people keep their systems at 1ppt - this ensures that if something goes wrong with the system (pump failure / whatever), nitrite wont be a problem. Only plants that seem to be affected by a low salt concentration is strawberries.

A couple of months ago my trout were aproaching 500g/30cm and I had a pump get blocked up and stall.

The trout were all sitting on the surface, and could be poked with the net, and they would not move. Bad, very bad.

The ammonia and nitrite levels were very high. Replacing the pump saw the ammonia levels start to drop, but this increased the nitrite levels. Fish worse.

Added 25kg of salt, within 10 minutes fish were back to normal. It's amazing stuff.

[Jill Carrier]

[Outbackozzie]

Wow - you call that a beginner setup? Thats awesome.

Very Pretty