The Consequences of Shading

Observations and Actions

1. Water is noticeably clearer but still has a greenish tint. The algae problem must be clearing up. I've been keeping the front of the tank covered with my whiteboard during the day. I also created a roman shade for only one of the windows, which also helped with he sun as well as decrease the heat in the room. I also have been limiting the feeding to 1-2 times per day; not just when the goldfish are clamoring for a meal.
2. My water readings are changing again. For the first time in awhile, the pH has gone below 6.5. The water hardness has gone up but the carbonate hardness has gone down. There are zero nitrites, but an increased level of nitrates. Are the plants not making use of the nitrates? The water temperature continues to be steady.
3. The snail died. I'm guessing that it may have had to do with the change in pH.
4. I topped off the tank with some naturally dechlorinated tap water (I left it uncovered, in a bucket, for a couple of days). I then added 40 drops of pH UP to the tank to get the numbers up. I should have added less for less of a shock. I know that the goldfish will handle it, but I'm not sure about the catfish. Both appear to be very healthy and active.
5. The plants are not doing well. This could be due to the pH changes. The fostered plants have brown spots on the leaves and appear to be wilting. Their health was floundering before I put up the window shade, but the decreased sunlight is a factor. The fostered plants have actually pointed to the left; towards the light of the closest, eastern-facing window. I am going to have to purchase a grow light but I don't want to spend the money.

Analysis

Regarding the algae v. plant light conundrum, I'm going to have to either move the tank or buy a grow light. While the sunlight is great for the plants, it's not direct. The room shading, which helps limit the algae growth and makes the room more comfortable in the summer, limits the plants' growth. I need to bite the proverbial, financial bullet and buy a grow light. If you have any recommendations, please provide a comment in the page or send me a tweet (@the1verse).

The pH dropped to 6.0. I'm very concerned about this since I really didn't do anything to the water. I'll have to read more about why this happened, but my observations tell me that the shading is the only external change. I don't recall anything else being done.

The Numbers

Date	GH General Hardness	KH Carbonate Hardness	pH	NO2 Nitrites	NO3 Nitrates	NH3/NH4 Ammonia	Temp °C
6-Jun	180	40	6.0	0	160	0.00	24°

UPDATE: The show so far

Cloudiness

After writing The Show So Far entry this morning, it suddenly occurred to me that the cloudiness of the water was most likely due to algae. After reading some material about what to do, it seems that it's a normal part of the process when you're starting up a tank. I already knew that having a tank in daylight conditions would make it an issue anyway.

After weighing my options, I'm going to let it ride for a little, but will probably get some snails to try to keep the tank in better balance. At first, getting a Pleco fish seemed like a wonderful idea, but thought better of it as I discovered that you need to keep feeding them algae tablets when there is no longer any algae in the tank. I'm thinking that some snails would be the less voracious option.

I'm also thinking about how to best cover the tank when we're not in the room. I thought about creating some kind of stage curtain. For whatever reason, it reminded me of this kitschy jukebox at this 24-hour greasy spoon called the Anchor Grille. For every song that plays, the curtain opens, revealing a big band made up of figurines. The figures actually move to the music although I don't recall if they actually moved to the beat. To make it even more hilarious, they placed Ken and Barbie dolls in front as the two singers. I couldn't stop laughing the first time I saw it.

The Anchor Grill Jukebox Band

Ammonia Explosion

So, I performed an afternoon ammonia check because of the alarming 2.0 ppm rate this morning. I was shocked that it jumped even further to 4.0! I acted upon the situation by performing a 20% water change and a supplement of pH UP to counter the lower pH of the replacement water (w/ a drop of dechlorinator). It continues to be an emergency situation until I can get the ammonia to a reasonable level. Otherwise, the fish will die. Let me do this now while I'm writing this...and I'm back. 

The ammonia is down to 2.0 ppm, but it's not good enough. I want to bring it to 1.0 and then let the bacteria do the rest. It's a kind of damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't scenario because for each water change, I dilute the ammonia but I also dilute the bacteria necessary for creating a balanced system.

The sudden prompting for an ammonia check was spurned by the behavior of the fish, as they were swimming a little erratically to me. It caused me to wonder if the ammonia was affecting them. Since 2.0 ppm is too high of a level for them, I guessing this is why. On the other hand, in my previous five gallon, traditional aquarium, the fish would do this after a water change, but then calm down. I will perform another ammonia check this evening.

Aerator

Since the algae problem had surfaced, and algae eat the oxygen needed by the fish, I needed to get an aerator sooner than I wanted. It suddenly dawned on me (twice), that my wife had an aerator that he attempted to give to her father, way before we met, but he rejected the present because he couldn't use it. It's really meant for a bucket of fish you've caught; after you've actually went fishing, but it's the same thing. I dug it out of my workbench area (the crapé room), plugged in some "D" batteries, and fired her up. It's working great so far.

Seeding

I'm going to soak the seeds I purchased for the growbed for a day to increase their chance for survival. I'm going to retry the varieties which killed the first time around, including: chive, basil, and jalapeño peppers. I'm also soaking the lemongrass seeds to place them in the growbed, but only for propagation purposes. They will later be transferred to a pot for mosquito-shooing and seasoning.

The lemongrass will come in handy when I make a banh mi hero from The Banh Mi Handbook. I received it as a gift from the Chef'd meal store. I feel guilty for not trying them yet. The french bread recipe looks so great!

Well, that's it for this evening. I'll do the rest of the readings tomorrow and let you know how it's doing.

The show so far

Observations

1. Water is still cloudy.
2. Fish seem to be doing okay. They have a good appetite. It seems like they may be breathing a little hard. The numbers will explain.
3. The water test today told me that there have been some dramatic changes to it.
1. pH dropped to around 6.5. It's critical that I get this back up to 7-7.5. I am concerned about the wild changes affecting the health of the plants and fish.
2. The nitrites have increased and nitrates are unchanged. By itself, this is good because it tells me that I have adequate bacteria for a nitrogen cycle.
3. The Ammonia has rocketed to 2.0 ppm! This is very bad. It needs to come down as soon as possible but without starting over and without any magic, mystery chemicals from the pet store. I'm wondering if the plants can keep up with the processing of the nitrates. The fish need better, more stable conditions.
4. The plants seem okay as none are wilting. These plants are not grown from the growbed itself. I purchased them from the Farmer's Market and put them in there specifically for the fish as a nitrate filter.
5. Water temperature is steady at 23°C.

Analysis

As an immediate measure to address the issues, I performed a 10% water change using water that had been sitting in an open bucket for this use. I left it exposed to dissipate the chlorine without using any tap water dechlorinator.

I also added 30 drops of pH UP (10 more than recommended).

Next Steps

1. Add more seeds to the growbed so I actually grow plants and not just transplant the good works of others.
2. Get the ammonia levels down. I could siphon the unused food and waste away periodically and add more plants to use the nitrates and thus, help keep the water cleaner for the fish.
3. I need to purchase an aerator. I saw one online that will also help keep the submersion pump quieter, but I can't find it now. I'll dig deeper. I didn't just imagine it.
4. Sprucing up the tank and adding lights, etc. will have to wait.
5. Buy some seeds, soak them for a day or so, and then add them to the grow bed.
6. I will perform another ammonia test later this afternoon to see if more action is needed to reduce it.

The Numbers

Date	GH	KH	pH	NO2	NO3	NH3/NH4	Temp °C
16-May	180	80	6.5	3	80	2.0	23°

The Venn diagram of simile, metaphor and reality

Observation & Action

So, I bought three goldfish yesterday for Fish Day after having whopping two days of acceptable numbers. To recount today's events, I'm going to write this entry a little differently than the others.  Here we go!

The water and fish before the changes

Morning Observations & Reaction

1. Cloudy water
2. Two outer drains were clogged with grow media; unclogged them and removed a riser on each, which would have the effect of lowering the water level in the growbed.
3. Opened the flow of the submersible tank to 100%.
4. Added the rest of the pepper seeds to the growbed.
5. The fish do swim, but not a lot. The conditions may not be ideal for them as of yet. I fed the fish this yesterday and this morning. They mainly hang out towards the bottom of the tank.
6. I siphoned some of the extra food from the tank that the fish didn't eat in order to forestall a rise in ammonia through food decay.
7. Since I really don't have any plants to use the nitrates since the seeds withered (probably due to the drastic pH changes, I am going to make a trip to the Farmer's Market and buy some plants to pre-stock the growbed. It will be important in order to keep the water clean for the fish.
8. I also plan to place some of the lemongrass seeds into one of the corners of the growbed. I'm going to at least propagate them here, so that I can put them into a pot later on. I understand that they help repel mosquitos. That will be helpful for the backyard.

The Morning Numbers

Date	GH	KH	pH	NO2	NO3	NH3/NH4	Temp °C
14-May (morning)	180	80	7.0	1.0	0.5	0.5	24°

This Afternoon's Events

I had a great time at the Covington Farmer's Market for the short time that I was there. It was especially cold and damp this morning with temperatures in the low to mid 50's (10-13°C), which was quite a shift from yesterday when it was in the 70's (21-23°C). I bought some spearmint, parsley and rosemary plants from one of the vendors. She certainly knew her plants well. I'll update this later with her card info. I also bought a lavender plant and a banana tree from a different vendor (not for aquaponics purposes). I will definitely come back to the Market next week.

So, I arrived back home, took care of the dogs, and then commenced see how I can stock these plants into the growbed. I thought the way to do this would be simple and have no negative consequences. Unfortunately, doing so met with some problems.

I started the rehoming process with the rosemary plant by bumping the bottom of its thin, plastic propagation pot, and then breaking apart the soil so that its roots were exposed. From there, I ran water over them while lightly massaging the roots in order to remove any soil. The next step was to put them into the growbed. Well, I either didn't do this thoroughly enough, or there was some debris from the growbed that make its way into the tank and further clouded up the water.

My soil-grown plants and fishes' new oxygen dealer

As a result, I freaked out. I was thinking that I was going to kill these poor fish after I took them away from their relatively posh lives at Planet Pet (a pet store across the Licking River in Newport, KY). Since I needed to get plants setup anyway, I continued the task of breaking my purchases free from their soil and into aquaponic system's substrate. I needed to find a way to clear up this water, but without starting over.

It's really a little bit of a pain in the ass to actually put existing plants in there, along with their long root structure, into the bed. It was even more difficult when changing the drain risers. As you may have deducted, the thing with collections of round items in a bowl, is that as soon as you dig a little hole, all of their little friends want to fill-in the gap.

Fortunately, I found a 5" (127mm) length of 3" (76mm) PVC pipe to help me solve the problem. Placing the pipe down into the substrate, and then digging out the balls, I was able to place the plant at the desired depth, put the balls back, and then lift the PVC back out of the substrate.

I came up with the solution when thinking about how they built the Hoover Dam. Before they could begin construction on it, they had to create a dry space tin which to work. To do so, they had to divert the entire Colorado River around the project, creating a dry bowl, until it was complete. Anyway, it worked for me.

Afternoon reaction

To summarize, I performed a 30% water change. Because I considered this an emergency situation, I used an eye dropper to administer a small, but appropriate dose of the Top Fin Tap Water Dechlorinator I had previously referenced. I probably diluted the ammonia and the bacteria population, but I wanted to clear the water so the fish could breath.

Currently, the water is very cloudy with low visibility. My most recent ammonia test, performed just a few hours ago, yielded 0.25 ppm, which is the lowest figure yet for the tank. I'm guessing that the murkiness is affecting the oxygen levels. The fish seem to be taking it in stride. They still want to eat and I have fed them. They change from hanging out at the bottom, but also hang out towards the top occasionally. During the Quarter (of the hour) Pump, they do swim and explore more than when it's off.

Afternoon Numbers

Date	GH	KH	pH	NO2	NO3	NH3/NH4	Temp °C
14-May (afternoon)	180	80	6.5	0.5	40	0.25	24°

Final Tasks

I had applied 21 drops of pH UP to the tank a few hours ago, but upon getting the latest pH figure, I added 20 more drops to it for a total of 41 drops (double the recommendation). I can't risk such a sharp drop in pH for both the fish and the plants' sake. The drop is most likely the result of the water change, so the fish, at least, are quite used to the 7-7.5 conditions. In my view, the extra is not a drastic action, but one needed to maintain the status quo.

My next tasks to work out are:

1. Determine how much to feed the fish that will keep the tank balanced while not starving them to death. They seem to like it better if a pulverize the food before dropping it into the tank.
2. Track the progress of the plants.
3. Put the lemongrass seeds in as I previously mentioned.
4. Find a way to further clear up the water in a safe way that keeps the system balanced.

Hopefully, I'll have a better report tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Nitrites! Where art thou, nitrites?

Observations

1. The General Hardness (GH) has dropped from 180 to 120 while the Carbonate Hardness (KH) has restored to its baseline number of 80. Could the flailing of the KH have been an harbinger for the change in the GH? I referenced this behavior yesterday regarding the KH and whether it was telling me something. Perhaps this was it?
2. The other numbers are steady.
3. The plants are not doing well. I can still smell them when my nose is about 6 inches from the growbed, but I no longer see any vibrant growth.
4. No nitrites yet. What the hell? Sure, I could put in some tank starter stuff, but I'd rather not do so. I haven't put any pH UP into the tank in three days. I'm going to see how the water hardness plays out before doing more. It does bring me to some interesting observations overall; not just for the previous day.

The observations about the plants' health compared to the changing water conditions. The chive were growing very well at the beginning. They were the seeds to sprout and actually show progress. The basil and cilantro were the first to sprout, but I they really didn't go beyond the growth shown in the initial photos when this blog started.

When I started making changes to the pH in order to spurn the growth of the nitrites, the chives went downhill along with the other plants. Inversely, the peppers and thyme started to respond positively instead. Of course, none of them are responding well at present. The most significant changes that could have effected them were in the pH and water hardness. Also, the ammonia went up. I'm thinking that the increase was due to the water dechlorinator I used to replace evaporated water in the tank. When it performed its duty, it converted the chlorine into ammonia.

My theory, which I could probably Google to confirm somewhere (or debunk), are the differing water conditioning needed for different plants for optimum growth. Taking out the cold issue regarding the behavior of the chives, do peppers and thyme respond better to higher pH than chive, basil and cilantro? Originally, I thought that the shift in the pH level, in either direction, would cause shock to the plants, but others appeared to grow better. 

I know that I'm most likely not making any breakthrough statements here, but there are just my thoughts and observations about my system. Feel free to chime in if I'm making a total ass of myself. I want to stand corrected instead of being oblivious.

Tap Water Treatments

The tap water in my area comes through the Northern Kentucky Water District. From what I've read, they don't use chloramines to treat the water; just chlorine. So, I may be able to simply get away with filling a bucket full of water, and letting the chorine dissipate through sunlight and air. In the future, I'll refrain from the Top Fin stuff and use this method. Of course, I'm going to perform an ammonia test before and after to the bucket to confirm my findings regarding the Top Fin's releasing of ammonia.

The Numbers

Date	GH	KH	pH	NO2	NO3	NH3/NH4	Temp °C
11-May	120	80	7.0	0	20	1.0	24°

The numbers and little more

The Numbers

Date	GH	KH	pH	NO2	NO3	NH3/NH4	Temp °C
10-May	180	80	7.0	0	20	1.0	24°

Observations

• The numbers are as mostly the same. I do think it's strange that the Carbonate Hardness (KH) is waffling back and forth. It's almost like it's telegraphing a catastrophe or just some kind of drastic change. Being the hobbyist that I am, I have no idea what this would be.
• I'm going to think about what to do given my new knowledge from yesterday. Perhaps I'll do a 10-15% change per day with an alternate source of water that is not dechlorinated using Sodium Thiosulfate. We're not going to eat the fish from this system, but I think it's better to set the good practices now so that I can more easily apply them to a larger system later on.
• All of the plants are wilting a bit. The pH changes may be playing a role. Hopefully, they will revive. I'm really inpatient to have suitable water for adding fish. I'll continue with readings and a strategy tomorrow.

Removing chloramines safely

The Issue

Earlier today, I expressed concern about the safety of the Tap Water Dechlorinator product that I was using to clear the chlorine and chloramines from the tap water that I put into my system. See the earlier post for details. To summarize, my main concern were:

1. Is the product disrupting the cycling for aquaponics purposes? My tank has no nitrites but does have a level of nitrates. Is there something preventing those ammonia-eating bacteria from being formed?
2. Is it safe to add such a product the water of a system from which we will eventually eat the plants?
3. Is the product actually contributing to a spike in ammonia?
4. What the hell is in this product? I can't find a site that has MSDS or any other clue as to what is in it?

Analysis and possible solution

After picking the algorithm of my personal librarian (Google), I discovered a couple of tidbits, such as:

1. Most dechlorinator products are comprised of Sodium Thiosulfate (ST) and/or EDTA. The Sodium Thiosulfate handles the chlorine and chloramine , while the EDTA handles any heavy metals.
2. I also read in a forum that the dechlorinator detoxifies nitrites and nitrates? There was no reference for this. I'm not sure if this point is relevant as long as these detoxified items do their part in the Nitrogen Cycle.
3. A forum posting recounted the bad taste of fish in his system while he was using Sodium Thiosulfate as a dechlorinating agent. He mentioned that his fish tasted like sulfur. He stopped using it and it was highly reduced. I'm assuming that he replaced the fish and the water beforehand, but I'll try to find the link to prevent the spreading of bad information.
4. The reaction of Sodium Thiosulfate winds up leaving ammonia after it does its job. This may explain one aspect of my water readings.
5. I also read that there are rising concerns about the health effects of ST on humans and fish. However, there was no reference to any actual studies or articles about those concerns or what they comprised.
6. Vitamin C appears to be the most natural source for removing chloromines from tap water. However, what is actually needed depends on how your municipal tap water is treated, as explained in the video below. Thanks, PhillyAquaponics!

So, will this will help solve the problem and lead to a healthier system? Do I have to perform a series of small water changes to reduce the effects of the dechlorinator product? Only time will tell.

Little change

The Numbers

Date	GH	KH	pH	NO2	NO3	NH3/NH4	Temp °C
9-May	180	120	7.0	0	20	1.0	24°

Observations

• pH back to 7.0
• KH back up but higher than baseline
• Ammonia same as yesterday.
• Nitrites and nitrates unchanged

Analysis

Thus far, the nitrates and nitrites have been pretty steady. I'm thinking that there are no nitrites to eat the bacteria and plants are not plentiful enough in the growbed to use all of the nitrates. I'm hoping that the better pH will help foster the creation of the Nitrosomonas needed for nitrite generation.

I have not applied pH UP to the tank today. Since it's so late in the day, I will will let it ride and check readings tomorrow.

A curious part of my analysis today, is that I tested my tap water for ammonia, but it turned out to be zero ppm (none). The other day, when I added dechlorinated water to the tank, my ammonia spiked the next day. I used Top Fin Water Dechlorinator to perform the conversion. The concerns are as follows:

1. Is this product adding and/or converting chemicals in the water to ammonia?
2. If this product is introducing ammonia into my system, will this product actually be detrimental in the long term; when fish are added to the tank. Since it's an aquaponics system, I really should not have to perform any water changes, but I will have to add water when enough of it has evaporated or used by the plants.
3. I'm actually concerned about what is actually in this product. Is it going to be safe to use going forward? Top Fin doesn't appear to have a site to find this information.

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Today's Chuckle

Found on Yahoo! Answers

How do I teach my fish to breathe outside the water?

He goes nuts when I take him out of his water. I don't underatand why he hates outside so much.