The set-up - Which I should have started this blog with.

Pictures detailing this will follow, at which point I will delete this little bit of text.

The Pacu are currently living in an 75 US gallon tank - 48"x18"x20" high.  It is filtered by a sump tank (about  14 US gallons) with lava rock and plants (with a 24" T5HO light on it), as well as an AC 70 HOB filter, with just sponges.  The sponges on the HOB are just to pull particulates out of the water column, as that was a pretty big problem right from the start.

There is an automatic feeder set on the AC 70, that pours food into the outflow 3 times a day, 6 hours apart.

the lighting on this tank is a 48" T5 HO (May not be HO) corallife fixture.  I would recommend against them if you have contact between the bottom of the fixture and the top of the tank, fyi.The plastic "shield" for the bulbs melts a bit.  There is a 24" 2 bulb t5 HO on the sump, to help the plants that are in there to grow. 
In the sump is lava rock, and a few bioballs, as well as Anubias, Hygrophila, and some java fern, perhaps.


There's a bunch of slate in the tank, to make spaces for the pacu to feel comfortable.

Pool filter sand substrate, and there may or may not be any Malaysian trumpet snails left in the tank.

 

Terrible news, everyone!

The science prof I had lined up to give me free credit just bailed, because he is too busy.  He also said that, for this to go forward, I would need an animal care certification, which takes about 4 months.

So, that's a setback.

I'll continue on. It'd be hard not to, with 17 voracious fish living in my basement.

Water change yesterday. There are at least 16 of them, but my count.
Algae growth is a bit of a concern, but I'm Not keen on introducing a pleco to that group.

Crap, now I've got about 60 problems. 60 parts per million that is! It's nitrates. That's the whole joke. Sorry.

Picked up some water test strips at the LFS and, yep, runaway nitrate problems.  This is the thing that having hydroponics attached is supposed to solve.  about 60ppm nitrates, but pH is good, as is the water buffering capacity and the nitrites and ammonia are at 0.  Still no corpses!


So, the plan for the weekend is to discuss what my partner is comfortable with in terms of hydroponics in our basement, and then try to get it started.
Also, start some seeds ASAP.
Also also do 2 water changes a few days apart, and bring that 60 down to 20 or less.  The math irritates me.  That means two 50% water changes to bring it down to 15, while the fish are still pooping.
DAMN THEM.  I hate 50% water changes.

Ooh!  Brainstorm.  The current plant shelf is right up against the aquarium, between it and the stairs.  I could put that on rollers, and use the space under the stairs as a hydro room.  It could work!!!

I've got 99 problems and a fish is one.

Not much new to report. Water parameters are apparently steady.  Temperature is rock solid.  I performed a 15+gallon water change on the weekend.  I did a test for Ammonia - 0ish (colour match test).
I'd like to get a constant monitor in there for nitrates, so I can keep an eye on that too.
I'm still trying to get a hold of the prof that agreed to supervise me.  I've asked the department secretary to let him know I'm trying to contact him.
Bah.

Still 17 alive, and they're (to my optimistic sight) noticeably larger.

Amazing!

Only 30 more weeks with the same number of problems and I'll be eating Pacu!

Interestingly, and disgustingly, my decorative tank has a problem, for the first time in probably a year.  One of the plecos has sloughed off a patch of skin about 1"x0.75" from his belly.
Only thoughts I have on it : Slept on the water heater, and was burned, or the introduction of some fish last week infected him with something awful.
I'll wait to make a decision on euthenasia.  He could pull out of this just fine.

They're here, they're a little creepy.

The pacu are in their baby tank!

Pacu being drip acclimated before transfer to tank

Okay, so that's not their actual final tank.  It's just a bucket, but still. 

On the, thankfully, waterproofesque scale

 We had to weigh each one individually, at which point I found out that my scale is not as exact as I would have liked.
The important thing, though, was that the scale was zero-able, so once the container was in place, I just had to dump a fish in there, and get the measurement.  

The tank as it is now, beautiful, before the learn that they are vegetarian

Of 17 that survived travel to Canada, Ich, and then travel to my home, 3 have noticeable injuries.  One of those appears to be significant, and may end up killing the fish.  It's an odd wound over it,s left eye that may have fungus now.  I'll keep an eye on the filter intake for the next while.

Everyone is eating voraciously, though, so that's good.

An auto-feeder has been placed to provide them with food every 6 hours from 8am to 8pm.  I'll up the amount of food that they are fed in a couple of weeks.

Notice the interesting spotting on the sides, and the lack
of a pronounced underbite, as opposed to piranha

They are rather creepy in their feeding.  They immediately began gnawing on snails shells.  I'm not sure if they were successful in their efforts but, if there are snails left in the tank, I don't see any anymore.

No deaths to report, 4 days in, which is a great thing, indeed.

Weights : four at 3 grams, five at 1 gram, and eight at 2 grams.

So, time to count the chickens.
Pacu have come in, they look healthy so far, and I'm getting excited about this again.

I'll be able to pick them up once I get back from a trip to the Sustainable Cities conference (London [Ontario.  Don't feel too happy for me]).

So, as soon as I land, I've got to get the tank nice again, which means cleaning a filter that is probably more than 50% blocked by now.  The flow rate was crap when I left, which means it'll be worse when I get back.

But, and somewhat more importantly, I'll take a picture of the tank.

See, the tank is beautiful.  The flow rate is lowish, which means the plants have flourished, snails are climbing the glass, the sand and rocks look great...

There is life everywhere.

Then I will introduce the "Omnivorous Piranha".  The plants will last MAYBE a week, I suspect.  Luckily, that also means the algae will likely be devoured.  The snails?  Can they stand up against a fish whose teeth are made for crushing the shells of nuts?

I am become death, etc etc.

The tricky part is going to be that I'll want to put them in  the tank toute suite, but I've got to remember to weigh them first.

Anyhow, nice to have a positive update.  I hope it is the first of many.

Edit: I can pick them up at the end of the week, and they're still healthy so far (on Monday).
Squee.

Still no fish... The tank is lonely.

So, funny thing about this is how much people are behind the idea.  Over the holidays two gentlefolk have passed my name on to others so that we can talk about aquaponics efforts in the city.  Who knew?

The fish are still not around.  It was a 100% die off at the fish store.  He kept saying "it was my fault, I didn't think they were that fragile".  I did not disagree.

At any rate, we may switch from Pacu to Oscars, which is funny, because the full-grown Oscars may be worth more per pound as pets than as food.

TOO BAD FOR THEM THAT THAT ISN'T SCIENCE.