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Prevent an Aquaponic Disaster
Prevent an Aquaponic Disaster
When someone new is getting into aquaponics, they need to take the time to carefully review and learn about aquaponic system maintenance. They need to learn about the most common issues that cause problems in aquaponic systems and it will help them to be more successful from the start.
One of the most disastrous aquaponic problems that can happen is when you use cold, chlorinated, un-adjusted pH water to top off and fill the system’s reservoir. Using this type of water will stress and kill everything from your fish and plants to even the healthy bacteria living in the system.
When you are “topping-off” the reservoir in the aquaponic system, you can get away with using less than 10% of this type of water. However, using too much will cause aquaponic problems in a very short time and you will need to start salvaging your system all over again.
Many times, people who are topping of their system using a water hose will forget that the water is on and flood their system. By setting a timer it will remind you to shut off the water to avoid this aquaponic problem.
The Options
Always evaluate the situation first.
Figure out what is wrong, ways to fix it and then pick the best option. Using chlorinated water essentially sanitizes your entire aquaponic system and will possibly eliminate all of the gathered plant nutrients.
When using cold, chlorinated, un-adjusted pH water for your system, the most likely state of each of the living elements in your system are as follows:
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The Fish
The Plants
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Learn From Another’s Experiences…
Chlorine is not good for fish and the best case scenario is that they are just really stressed. The temperature level of their water most likely decreased considerably and the pH of the water is most likely changed.
While it is best to not utilize aquarium dechlorinators since they add sodium and other chemicals that can be hazardous to plants and cause aquaponic problems.
You should reduce the amount of chlorine in the system as quickly as possible to recover the fish’s slime coat that keeps them healthy, using a good aquarium water conditioner will do both of these things.
In extreme aquaponic problem cases, many of the fish may be very sickly, or floating in the water.
The Plants
Your plants also are stressed as a result of the temperature and pH changes, in addition to the chlorine that is presenting the water.
If your aquaponic problems are extremely bad then you might have to clean the system, which removes all of the beneficial nutrients from the system. It is strongly recommend that you add some Maxicrop into your system that will feed your plants while the aquaponic system comes back into balance.
If you catch the aquaponic problem before the water has made its way from the fish reservoir into the plants in the system, then quickly shut off the water pump. You will need to treat the fish tank water before you turn the water pump back on and by doing this it will help to minimize aquaponic problems caused to your plants and the bacteria in your system.
The Bacteria
Likely, the healthy bacteria in the aquaponics system have been destroyed and you will need to start all over again by re-cycling your system.
This is the hardest part since you most likely still have fish in your system and if they all didn’t die, you will need to cycle your system using the fish as your ammonia source.
Unless you have another fish tank or aquaponic system that you can transfer them to and do a fish-less cycling.
All will work out, however be sure to watch the ammonia and nitrite levels very carefully. If either starts reaching the high end of the color graph in the API test kit (4 ppm ammonia and 1 ppm nitrites).
After that be sure to do a 1/3 water change out of your system to dilute the levels back down to where your fish will be able to tolerate to avoid further aquaponic problems.
The Worms
You can assume that they have actually been eliminated by the chlorine and that you should add more worms to your grow beds once you have adjusted the water.
The bottom line is that one disruptive aquaponic problem can reset your system back to when you first started. You may lose a few fish, your plants could stress out and yellow for a few days or weeks, but you will certainly recuperate from the aquaponic problems.
Learn From Another’s Experiences…
The best way to prevent these aquaponic problems is to use a separate water tank to off-gas the chlorine, adjust the pH and water temperature before transferring the water into your aquaponic system.
By doing this additional step, you will save time and heartache from an aquaponic problems turning into a disaster then having to start all over again.
And just think, you will most likely never make these mistakes again or by reviewing this article, you will prevent this aquaponic problem from ever happening!
