It is with great sorrow to inform yall that we have had a die off event in the system.
4 of the oldest and largest fish in the system have died and had to be removed from the system.
It looks like one of the tank heaters had gone bad and had caused the GFCI protectors to trip. Which is what its supposed to do. However the pump was also on this gfci circuit. And with no way of knowing it had tripped the system has sat idle without flowing water for most likely 2-3 weeks.
The fish survived up until a few days ago. Although tilapia are hardy and can handle stress they can only handle it for so long.
I am having to start thinking if maybe its time to retire the system. I am unable to allocate more than the 1 visit per month that i do atm.
It was always my hope that this would grow into a community project with more people involved. Some people have shown interest but im not sure how to foster it into a active group that can help maintain the system.
I havent decided what to do yet. Hopefully i can get more people involved. But if not ill have to start making plans to shut the projevt down.
I have seen 2 medium fish and 1 small still alive in the system. But the water is to murky for me to verify if there are any others.
Ill plan to make another trip next weekend just to make sure there isnt still an issue.
I gotta say, it’s been amazing. I was skeptical at first that the plywood was going to hold water long-term, but it’s been holding together just fine.
Yeah, those fish lived pretty long lives. They were supposed to get harvested as they grew up, but strangely no one was up for gutting them. They ended up reaching retirement age.
It’s sad to see the project shutdown but like you said it really does need a solid group of regular volunteers committed to maintaining it in order to keep it going. I love the unique character it gives walking into the space but unfortunately, it probably is time to decommission it especially with fish continuing to show up dead after you recently came to check it out. It has been a pretty impressive project I must say.
This system took 6 months, and $2.5k to build, id hate to see it go, but i know something has to change.
Its been running for 2.5 years, and its had a pretty good run. But this was always intended to be a community project to try and get others to take part and get involved. And although there have been people who have shown interested and participated it needs dedicated volunteers to be regularly involved with the system to keep it running.
I’d say there are 3 paths going forward.
1- We get 3 more dedicated volunteers, so we can have somebody to check on it every week.
(not maintenance but just checking to make sure its working, and maybe help tend the plants, and clean the glass)
2-We convert it to a Hydroponics system, this eliminates the fish from the system and we just use chemicals to provide the plants with nutrients.
(We can keep the grow bed and the sump on the workshop side, and take the tank home, worst case for this is we kill the plants, but we don’t have to worry about killing fish anymore. This would cost money to do the conversion, and does require more automated controls to get it to function.)
3- We kill the whole system and remove it from the space entirely.
(I don’t like this option as I’d just be shoving it into a storage unit in this scenario.
[a potential 4th would be to turn the fish tank into a decorative tank, (either with the grow bed converted to hydroponics, or removed) disconnected from the grow bed, with decorative fish and decorations. I would have to design and build a new filter system to filter the water for the tank, but would likely be more easily maintained than the full aquaponics system]
Anybody wanting to volunteer to help run the system please contact me directly.
I will need to make a decision on what to do by the end of the month.
I am toying with the idea of doing a slight redesign that may help keep the water clearer, and add some redundency. But that may need a new board approval to do.
Came in and found another dead fish, cant really figure what is causing this die off.
I went ahead and removed it.
Ugraded the main pump line to the tank has been upgraded from a 1/2 to 3/4 line this should help keep the flow high so the flow doesnt get choked as much.
I also installed 2 new power strips with indicators lights so its easy to see that everything has power. I took pics and will give a write up of ehats plugged in where soon.
I found the part that caused the original short circuit, it was one of the pumps i was using to just circulate water inside the sump.
For now it should be good, not sure what else to do atm.
There are still 2 medium fish and 2 small fish in the system. Hopefully we can keep them going.
@valerie since not all members check discourse regularly and the aquaponics is in peril, could we send out a mailchimp email to recruit a volunteer team to support the aquaponics project? Volunteers could raise their hand by filling out a short google form indicating when they’re available for a zoom call so that James can get them up and running quickly.
@EricP has been working with @Tookys directly on a plan of action around this. There is a lot in flux with space plans at the moment (our lease is up in November and we’re still in the process of renegotiating lease and double checking that there aren’t better spaces for us). Once we have more items nailed down, we can circle back to this.
They appear to be overfed, there’s a bunch of uneaten pellets floating and sunk.
Is it adjusted for the population? There’s just 2 adults, a smaller one, and some fry
Sorry to say the system is still struggling to function. Ive started school this week and am unable to obligate more time to the system than i already have.
Im still needing volunteers to help maintain the system. For the most part just somebody to check on it once a week would be a big help.
And if a couple people know how to fix common issues itd help save me a 4 hour trip.
Sadly if i cant get more volunteers and i cant get the system to calm down i will have to decomission the system.
If anybody can help just check if its working on a regular basis or help with minor maintenance please let me know.
Some of the more basic things that helps most of the problems is:
1-make sure you hear water splashing in the fish tank.
-If you dont hear splashing the bumps may not be running
2- make sure the lights on the 2 mounted power strips are on.
-if the lights are out on the power strips its likely one of the gfci outlets has tripped and will need to be reset.
No problem,
Just having a 1 page laminated sheet that’s taped to the system of the above things with pictures of what to check etc. would get more people to check on it. They can probably do it in the Facility safety tour if its laid out like I suggested above.
Ive been trying to make my monthoy visits on the 1st saturday of the month around 3:30 pm if anybody would like to meet to go over what all TLC the system needs let me know.
