Finished cyle but COLD water question.

[HoundsNTrout]

Hi folks. Not on here much but learning as I go.
Sorry if this is old info but it has a slightly different angle to it probably than most questions on cycling . Here goes.


I have been raising trout ( rainbow, brown and brook ) for the past several years in a relatively open circuit. Fresh water in and out with minimal input ( if any ) from the bio filter ( some hatcheries have them I guess for kicks and kiggles not sure ) . I decided to put a bio filter in my system just " in case " . Whatever that means. LOL

ANyway, I hatch the eggs then raise the fry in same small tank ( 55G ) and with a bio filter in a closed loop system for about 2 to 3 months until they are about 2 inches long. Currently have 300 of them in a 55G. I keep water at 55 to have quicker growth rates. Otherwise if I were to make an open circuit it would have 45 degree water. Fine but not what I want.


My goals and what I do is raise the trout to about 4 1/2 inches then put them in my ponds and stream to fish for and eat. I do not keep them any longer.

Sooooo To get to my question. First time this has happened.

I got my small 55G tank cycled well at around 80 degrees F. All was well, the tank cycled 4ppm amonia in 6 hours and I can't recall the ppm of nitrites that were also cycled quite quickly. So I took out 80 percent of the water maybe 90 then added cold water 55F for the trout. The next day cycling seemed to have stopped.

Should I have done this on a slower rate, doing partials until I got the water down to 55F say in a couple days? Rather than instantly.

I am now using Prime and changing water daily since the amonia won't cycle. Nitrites have started to not show up. Its been 3 days.

Did I stunt it? Or kill the amonia eating crittters?

I have large amounts of fish in the tank all 2 inches long. I have Two bio filters plus one on the bottom of tank that can act as both a bio and sediment/particulate filter. I use that one as particulate filter. I change the media daily but leave the stones in it.

I also have stones on the bottom of this tank too.

Should I expect a cycle to start soon? with respect to the amonia levels? Did I kill the bacteria off by shocking the heck out of it?

I may have to go to a 100G system to raise the little guys? Thing is the trout themselves seem to produce 3 to 4ppm amonia in 12 to 24 hours and my bio was taking care of that before.

Thanks.

 

[Bobbybillymike]

The sudden drop in temp probably caused the the beneficial bacteria to become "dormant". They work faster and more efficently at temperatures between 74 and 84. You can still cycle the tank at the 55 but it will take a really really long time. Your best bet is the try to seed the aquarium with bacteria that have already been established in cooler water system to try and give it a boost.

 

[HoundsNTrout]

I also wonder if I raise the temp of the tank to the upper level that these rainbow trout can still thrive to around 65 or so if that would speed it up. I do not have any cold water media from other tanks at the moment.
Not sure why I did this suddenly. Last 2 X I raised the temperatures from 80 ish to 70 then 60 in about 6 days. All went well even loading the tank with 500.

Think I'll try raising the temps just a tad then ever so slowly decreasing again. IDK.

These fish will be stocked in 2 months so I am not bothering with the larger 300G tank. Just gonna stock them at 3 inches.

Thanks.

 

[Bobbybillymike]

Look out for mold and bacterial infection when you raise the temp

 

[HoundsNTrout]

Yes sir. No doubt.
I use salt a lot which helps. Every 10 days salt treatment.

 

[MonsterFishCreeper]

Not to derail your thread but I'm really interested in what you're doing, sort of a dream of mine to raise trout and do my own stocking. Do you spawn the fish yourself?

 

[HoundsNTrout]

Not to derail your thread but I'm really interested in what you're doing, sort of a dream of mine to raise trout and do my own stocking. Do you spawn the fish yourself?

Don't do it. LOL. Well, of course try it its fun but no matter what you read it still can be difficult.
I am just starting to take my own eggs this Fall so we'll see how that goes, but its so inexpensive to purchase either eyed eggs from the college or little 1 1/2 inch jobbers. But it would be nice to see if I can do it, watched a few videos from US fish and wildlife. The breeders are going to be 2 1/2 years old and only cost between 5.50 and 10.00 bucks. Not sure how many eggs I'll get. The eyed eggs are $50 per 1000.

Also check your state regulations. Most states its not illegal to raise your own trout, however STOCKING them you need a permit or to sell them to friends you need a license or have your fish tested. etc,etc.

I'm doing this in a 275G IBC tote. Home made bio filter on top that pulls water from bottom of tank to top of the bio filter then drops waterfall down into the tank. Then I have 4 large airstones. I also have a piping system that I trickle clean well water into the tank and it comes out at same rate. I have never tested it full bore 250 gallons per hour which hatcheries do, meaning full open circuit. Fish will not grow as fast ( because of the 50 degree well water vs my heated to 60F ) but a heck of less hassles with ammonia, fungus, etc. that way. So, next spring I'll pump from the stream I think a full open circuit.Risking disease, so IDK. We'll see about that. I kind of like my system as long as it doesn't kill our well.

The hatchery told me I could easily have 2000 4 inch fish in this tote, so I started with that and by the time they reached 2 1/2 inches I started having cannibalism and ammonia build-up. So I raised the flow rate to get 50 gallons of new water every day and that worked for a while maybe a month, then more ammonia problems. I'm talking 5ppm over night ( 8 hours ) the bio filter should have taken care of that. I lived and learned, always change the particulate filter DAILY and leave the filter alone ( even the secondary particulate media I put on top of bio filter leave to change weekly, leave the others alone permanently ).

So, over loading ( which I did and hatcheries do for the most part ) is a problem. So 600 fish in that tank to 4 inches would be a lot better even 1000. Unless you can have a complete open circuit of good clean well or spring water.

My ponds that I stock need 3000 fish usually, fist year anyway. ONe is 20 acres.

I'd say the main thing is make yourself a much larger bio filter than you could imagine and make sure it cycles at 60 degrees. I'm having problems now with my starter tank.

Then use salt on a weekly basis to keep them disease free.

I ended up the first year with 1000 make it to stocking size of 4 inches out of the original 2000. Had other problems too my fault, left the heater on all night once in January and it went up to 75 degrees in the tank frying a lot of brookies.

Anyway, the experts around here say don't mess with heating a tank to 60, keep it at whatever the water is from well and run a 50-50 or full open circuit and no need for a bio filter. I say run it anyway. but. my fish grew over an inch per month as comared to maybe an inch or less per month in 50 to 52 degree water. The DO was only a tad lower at 60 than 50 here from my well water.

So there ya go. I will post some photos like I said but havent yet. Its nothing special and its just for stocking not keeping them to 10 inches. I have a 5000 gallon I think I'm gonna get going for that purpose.

Good luck.

 

[HoundsNTrout]

So I raised the temp in my starter tank to 60F and see what that does. I don't have any other options right now. I fired up the large tank only 2 weeks ago at 80 degrees, I think I'll get it to where I just start seeing good things happening then slowly lower the temps, wait, then keep doing that til I get it to 60 degrees even 62 and hope it stays cycled and capable of 5ppm in 8 hours.

I have no other media form cold tanks at the moment. SO water changes are gonna get old and seachem by the gallon I guess. IDK. Any other ideas?

 

[Bobbybillymike]

Do you have a chiller for the tank?

 

[duanes]

You need to be consistent with your temp between how you get the filter seeded and to get bio bacteria to survive in the trout tank. A 20'F differential will crash bacterial populations every time.
I toured the Great Lakes Fresh Water Institute, and they were experimenting with heavily stocking ponds of cold water fish (perch) and using fluidized bed filters about the size of standard water heaters (6 ft tall @ 2ft in diameter) in their heavily stocked indoor ponds.
You may also try considering bio-fractionation units, beside removing harmful substances before they get a chance to biodegrade in the filters, they are great at aeration. click pic to run video