Good news, the trout are alive! The population is now stabilizing, as we are not losing trout at the high rate we were before. It seems as though the addition of aquarium salt has made a difference. The tank also finished cycling as the Nitrite levels peaked at 2.0 ppm on 12/17 and had dropped to 0.00 ppm by 12/24/10. The number of dead trout removed each day peaked on Dec. 14th when 17 dead trout fry were removed. Based on the discussions on the yahoo site, we are beginning to think that these trout were “pinheads” and they had not developed the correct internal structures to eat food and absorb nutrition. Although the trout did not look like the “typical pinhead,” they did seem to be thinner and more tapered toward the tail. There has been much speculation as to the quality of the eggs and the number of deformed trout. Our understanding is that the new trout egg sorter does a better job of separating the viable eggs from the rest. We have observed less deformed trout this year, only 10 to 15. Last year, we
euthanasized about 48 deformed trout fry before Christmas break because we felt the deformed trout would not survive and we did not want them to die over the vacation and cause disease in the tank. The current trout population is at 270 trout.
Our trout are eating from our automatic feeder. We are currently feeding the fry the #1 food. We switched back to the Bio-Oregon food as recommended by Spring Reilly despite the issues we had early on. Were are not having any problems with fungus growing on leftover food, as we are currently feeding the trout fry a proper amount of food, or even a little less. Our new LED light (with 50,000 hours of life) will help extend the viewing hours for the avid fans of our trout cam. The LED light bulb gives us the opportunity to observe a great energy conservation tactic as the LED light uses only 8 watts of energy – compared to a 60 watt bulb, or a 23 watt compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). The light will be on from 6AM to 10PM. This will give the trout fry a chance to sleep between 10PM and 6AM.
Our chiller was malfunctioning, and the temperature in the tank was as high as 68 degrees F. To cool the water in the tank we were putting milk jugs filled with ice into the tank. We keep 3 gallon size milk jugs (4/5ths filled with water) in the freezer just for this reason. Trade Wind Chillers sent us a replacement chiller that arrived this week, and the temperature in the tank is back down to 49 degrees. The fry have grown a lot since they hatched how most of the fry are 2cm to 4cm long. One major problem with the trout tank is the pH has been ever since we installed the tank. The pH is currently 7.8, which is basic. The water we use for water changes in 6.5, which is acidic. We think it might be the lava rocks (which provides a habitat for the nitrogen fixing bacteria), that is causing this issue. We might try to lower the pH by adding oak leaves to the tank. The ammonia level in the tank is 0ppm, and so is the nitrite. This shows that the bacteria in the tank are doing their job. The nitrate level is testing at 40.0 ppm. We checked this today with the Chemetrics zinc reduction Nitrate test kit at a 5X dilution. This chemical test kit showed the current Nitrate level to be 8.36 ppm. This is the third time that we have used this test kit to compare against the fish tank test kit and the results are consistently lower than the API Freshwater test kit. At least we feel a bit better about our Nitrate levels. We are currently researching places to but the Watercress, as we would like to include some live plants in our tank to absorb the Nitrate.
The trout cam is getting excellent views of the fry because it is located near the automatic feeder. So, if you have not taken a look yet, please click on the link below to see our Trout in Action! We have good and bad news, and although our trout are doing much better, we have not run out of problems to solve. Until next time… Just keep swimming!
http://montgomeryschooltrout.wikispaces.com/
The Green Team!