Problems to be encountered in Aquaponics systems:
* predators: raccoons, opossums, they will eat your fish or destroy your grow beds looking for snails
--> mechanically protect: cover fish tanks, enclose system
--> simple styrofoam has shielded my system from these predators, though they did cut through my plastic door before I put foam on it also
* sludge fouling your piping and grow beds
--> use a sludge separator: http://wolfenhawke.blogspot.com/2012/09/aquaponics-sludge-separator-update.html
* water fouled: this could be for any number of reasons, but most likely it will occur from overfeeding. This can happen accidently due variations in an auto feeder
--> turn off all feeding until water clears, don't worry, your fish can survive days without food
--> if you see excess floating food, remove it
--> if possible replace at least half of your water, but don't fret it if you cannot replace
--> if you are using a timer on your water pump, bypass it so it is running 24/7
--> run the system continuously until the water clears -- it will, then restart normal operation
* mysterious fishkill: your fish are dying but the water is not cloudy
--> this is rare for tilapia farming
--> check your chemical levels
--> check for dead fish fouling the water
--> check the tank temperature -- sometimes heater elements will fail on
--> check for water getting too cold -- temps lower than 55F are bad for Tilapia
--> proceed similar to water fouled actions above: but on chemical imbalance, you will also need to investigate -- this could happen if you didn't "start the fish tank" and you put a lot of fish in at once, see http://wolfenhawke.blogspot.com/2012/10/starting-fish-tanks.html
