Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys
I thought you guys might be interested in composting teas as an additive to make up deficeincys in your aquaponics systems.
See this as a primer http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/compost-tea-notes.html heaps more info on th net. Of particular interest is teas as a fungicide. Organic!

I used to make compost tea a while back, haven't made any in a long time...

id like to see if it really works as a fungicide.

Checkk out this article

http://www.pesticide.org/FarmerExch2003v9.pdf

i have been wondering about taking like a sock and stuffing it with bone meal and batguano, and some other organic stuff and letting it float in the water, would this alone allow more organisms to flourish or do i need to add them, seeing as my system is in doors where do thease little microorganism come from, also i heard about a guy who got bacteria from the rainforest and used them to grow big veggies, how can i get my hands on some crazy microorgansims that will help to increase my systems output?

Go to Brazil?

ok so i went and got some bone meal, they didn't have bat guano there, but i put the meal into a sock tied it off and placed it in my tank, ill see if there is any difference in growth.

Perhaps innoculate your system with a variety of filter washings or pond gunk?

yea i was thinking about going to the local stream and getting some rocks and gunk, what im thinkin with the bone meal is cause its all in a sock that things will start to grow in it and in turn will end up in the water but if the micro organisms arn't there to begin with then they can't grow, do u think that alot of them are in tap water?

They put chlorine in tap water to eliminate micro-organisms. So no, they won't be there. And my bet is that the bone meal was baked or sterilized, so they won't be there either. Some good bacteria spores may drift in on the air currents, but that could take a long time. Go get gunk.

I'd ask some questions about where your bone meal came from. Bone and fat are the two biggest stores of chemical nasties, heavy metals in particular, in animals. For this reason comercial blood and bone is not a good additive for an organic garden.

Time to wake up this Post

So the other day I am looking at my plants and thinking gee those leaves are yellowish. Thinking about where i can find a "mineral" additive i was lost for ides. That is until i transplanted my bell pepper from its organic soil to the grow bed. I though hey the dirt is organic no chemicals at all just bunny be and rice husks so why not. I threw a big hand full in (about 4 days ago). Now i go up to look at the leaves and they are all shinny and green. So what do i think. I need a sock some good compost and a rubber band. I was also thinking about building a worm farm and using the casting to help with the added tea action. Anyone see a downside?

start small and you should be ok

And everyone else is religiously washing gravel.

Yeah well I just added a sand bed yesterday so water clarity is kinda out the window. But i was thinking the more i can do to add minerals and increase algae (Tilapia love it) the better for the systems. As well i have to be careful not to overdose.