Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all,


I have an experiment, having two blue barrels filled with gravel, and i have fish tank which is about 100 Gallon and has about 20 fishes.

The issue i have here is that each time i plant something now since about two months, it reaches about 1 inch to 2 inches and them turn yellowish and die!

I deeply thought about it, and figured out that I might be over watering them! as the grow bed gets full in about 5-8 minutes and then the siphon breaks.

So today i decided to search for something that might help in fixing the problem, so I took out the standing pipe and made small hall in it at about the bottom, and I installed a timer! I sat the timer to start 1 H on and 1H off..

So, frankly speaking i don't know yet what would be the result, but have any of you out there experianced such issue with your grow beds?

Please share your past experience; so that ll can benefit.

Regards,
Mohamed

Check the second post

Please share your past experience; so that ll can benefit.
you can visit my project here please - link removed by moderator

Hi Mohamed,

I removed one of your posts because of the redundancy and the link. Please read the forum advertising policy here - http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3208

Regarding your question about plants either stalling out of dying - check for "damping off" on plants that fall over - usually the surface of the media stays too damp and encourages organisms that attack the plant stem - you should be able to see where the stem has collapsed.

For the lack of growth, it can be lots of things but these are the most common -
too little light
a nutrient deficiency
root rot

Probably the most common nutrient deficiencies in AP are iron and potassium. Usually with an iron deficiency the new growth on the plant turns yellow first. Potassium usually causes the edges to yellow and die but on the lower parrt of the plant.

If you're feeding flake food or some other food that is designed from maintenance then there might not be enough nutrients. Commercial pellets are designed more for growth and will do a better job. You'd likely see overall yellowing from nitrogen deficiency if this is the case. You might also see a variety of deficiencies depending on the plant type and what becomes limiting.

Hope this helps.

Has your account been hacked Joblow? Thats a bit weird...

Not sure EB, there was a PM that has been deleted that I can't access?

Thanks a lot

The PM was from me. I was trying to figure out your post so I sent you a question. I figured out what you were getting at when I saw the second thread from Mohamed, which is now history. I deleted the PM to you when I figured out what was going on. This is also why my post to Mohamed includes a link to the forum advertising policy. Hope that clarifies things, sorry for the confusion.

PS - Don't forget about using flags

Thanks again Scott.

I do appreciate your assistance, and am very sorry for breaking the rules of the website I do admit it.

Regards,
Mohamed

Thanks Mohamed. I probably wouldn't have confused anyone but for leaving the link in this thread temporarily, I'll remove it now. Let us know how the plants are doing and post up some pics in the thread if you need more help.

Thanks for clearing that up Scotty.

back to the original question....

>> So, frankly speaking i don't know yet what would be the result, but have any of you out there experianced such issue with your grow beds?

Yes this is discussed around the forum and is quite common when new AP people have the water level too high.
The typically recommended is that the water level is 5cm-7cm (2-3") below the top of the media.
However 3-4" is good with clay etc because the clays still tend to wick and stay moist within the unsaturated part.

Even with the timer & full drain hole - which has the advantage that it also forces aeration of the root zone while staying damp - you will find that you do not want to have the fill water level too high.

This is also why we tend to recommend a deeper media bed of 300-350mm (12-14").

the circulation of an AP system is really for the aeration and filtering of the fish tank.
The plants would easily be OK with a system that only filled and flushed once every couple hours provided the media stayed damp/wet in between.