Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Interesting... Because 3 days after adding the chelated iron, the first plant to begin going green again was a flowing plant (unsure of the name). All of its small leaves had lost a lot of their colour but came back quite quickly.
Whilst the plants suffering the most yellowing were the cauliflower and broccoli. However, these two have without doubt began transforming all of their existing leaves from quite yellow to a mottled green. At Day 5, the cauliflower leaves had all gone green again with the broccoli lagging behind.
Yesterday, several of the brocolli leaves were half green and half yellow.
Its like watching a slow leaking green dye seep through the leaf veins...!

I guess it relates to the take up of nutrients by the plants Tony. Very interesting. Chelated iron is great because it is available immediately to the plant and does not rely on the ph of the growing system for release.

Good to hear the transformation is even better than expected!

Hey cheers for that tip..
I should have taken some pics of the plants..! I wasn't expecting that the change would be so dramatic.
I'm on my way home now with about 80 x 10cm atlantic salmon fingerlings on the back seat of the car..! So when I get home in a couple of hours I'll check out to see if there are still some yellow leaves I can take a photo of.. Or the half yellow / half green ones..

Here you go.
The broccoli leaf is going through that transformation. You can see in the photo other leaves below it, also going green. The leaf was as yellow at the end tips before adding the chelated iron.
Its pretty cool to watch over a series of days.. (and yes, I do have a life.. )
And the 80 atlantic salmon fingerlings are now in the tank..! And feeding well, and none floating on the surface this morning..
All good (so far).
Cheers
T

Oh very good!

Good news on both the plants and fish Tony... onward and upward...

Cool

wow!
Looks like the fountain of youth for plants.

Back on the topic, using pee stored in a bottle for over a month, firstly is it still okay to use or is that too long, could easy empty it and start again but havn't been game to open the bottle. I am still a couple of weeks away from fishlessly cycling so have time to start a new batch. Also is there a recommended doseage of aged hummonia per 100lts of fish tank per day to begin the cycling?

Personally, knowing the risks with using ammonia, when I need to fishlessly cycle again, I would use the fish emulsion without any hesitation.
It was a piece of cake to add regularly in small doses and watch the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels build and fall as required.
It has the added benefit of feeding the plants.
But that's just my opinion.

What are the risks of using ammonia?
And what is fish emulsion?

Thanks
mark

Yes what are the risks of using ammonia? or Aged Hummonia/pee stored in a bottle?
And fish emulsion I'm assuming is a product like "Charlie Carp" or similar. Does anyone else use this either for fishlessly cycling or while having fish in a cycled system? I do know plants love it!

I think the "risks of using ammonia" that Tony is referring to... relates to the pruchase of a pure ammonia... detergent free...

All other fishless cycling methods... whehter that be humonia, urea, fish emulsion, dead prawns ( )... etc... all involve a conversion to ammonia at some stage...

Maybe I should have rephrased the 'risks' comment.

When fishless cycling there isn't the inherent risk of killing the fish with an accidental overdose of ammonia. However, it needs to be added to the system carefully at the correct amounts. As mentioned by TC (which is a great post I might add), the 1 - 2 ppm needs to be followed quite closely. If it is exceeded then there is possibility of overloading the system and causing it to crash. Again, not a real problem with no fish, but it will delay being able to add fish.

However, pure ammonia is not a pleasant chemical, is difficult to acquire in pure form, and carries significant health and safety concerns. Spillage's and inhalation or skin contact may cause significant injuries. If used regularly, or when stored in the shed without proper ventilation and which is accessed frequently, a condition called 'hyperammonia' can lead to central, neurologic (brain and nerve) and liver problems. Obviously, this probably wouldn't happen in an aquaponics system of low use, but accidental misuse and mishandling is quite possible.

Ammonia production is also very energy intensive, so from an environmental concern, I don't like it either. And you are adding a produced chemical to the water. Sure, it'll be broken down eventually, but that's my spin on it.. Just an opinion..

As Rupert mentioned though, the other methods and sources of ammonia could potentially introduce disease. Hopefully your own hummonia doesn't have too much disease, but its difficult to know just how much you are adding..

Hence, why I used Charlie Carp.. It is organic fermented fish, was easy to add exact doses, didn't smell, dissolved easily in the water, and seemed to work a treat.