Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Any fine sand filter will block in no time flat... a slow flow will only exercerbate that...

IMO... not worth the effort... and a major increase in maintainence requirement... for neglible benefit...

Grow Beds should filter it out bunson, I have 5500lts and only 2 GB's at this stage and that is sufficient (even though 2 guru's predicted I would have green water and problems by now sorry guru's ), bacteria should do the job, no need *frack* ing around cleaning filters if you don't have to in my opinion anyhow

Just wait until you have a decent amount of nitrates, and some warm weather Nocky. You'll be greener than Pemberton grass

Bushier too

You did say in no time OBO and your counterpart agreed, did go a bit tainted but clear as crystal now
Hijack Complete sorry bunson

I was talking Plants

For various reasons, I was unable to get some new plants today to add to the system, so I divided some of the existing plants from the system and the established garden, and also added some more seedlings. More clay balls were added to the growbed and the water height adjusted so it floods almost-all-the-way-up leaving the surface dry, before draining down when the pump is off. I have 95 of 96 pots populated and 60% of the growbed populated (I have some more seedlings that weren't quite ready for transplanting). The pond remains 90% covered. For the mean time, I have the aerator running continuously.

Just before it was completely dark outside tonight, I did notice the water was a little less green; maybe it was because the water was a little more cloudy, probably due to the addition of extra balls despite the cleaning they underwent before being added. Tomorrow I will do another water test.

I have researched plants which readily take up and store nitrogen; most of them are grasses, tall plants or weeds:
Pigweed
Lamb's Quarters
Canada Thistle
Jimsonweed
Wild Sunflower
Fireweed
Cheeseweed
Sweet Clover
Smartweed
Russian Thistle
Nightshades
Johnson grass

Corn
Oats
Beet
Soybean
Flax
Alfalfa
Rye
Sudan Grass
Wheat

Can anyone recommend any other nitrogen-hungry plants which grow quickly in the current (Perth) climate?

I notice in the above there were no flowers. What about marigolds and other "companion" plants, are they suitable for exploiting as nitrogen sinks? (I noticed Lungy had some in his system, sorry for your loss Lungy) Wanting the best of both worlds: If I plant marigolds in high nitrogen media they will not flower or flower poorly, producing mainly masses of green growth, but I want the flowers too (and yet my AP broccoli bolts straight to flower!). Any ideas/recommendations?



Scott

Don't know who told you flowers, and Marigolds, wouldn't grow and "flower" in AP Bunson...

But one of my clients has no trouble what so ever...





I'm sure Faye will attest to it as well...

Almost anything will not only grow, but thrive in AP...

Other heavy nitrogen feeders include tomatoes, cucumbers and all the brassicas... including cauliflower and broccoli...

All "flowering", fruiting/seeding plants...

I realise you probably already know this so don't take offence, but just in case;

You have nightshades listed and that is a large family that includes tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants (aubergine), capsicums and all the chillies which gives you a fair range to choose from.

In high nitrogen (and high potassium, worse when it high nitrogen and high potassium) environments, flowering plants like marigolds will either not flower at all or produce small numbers of small or malformed flowers. This is the case for in-soil gardening; I don't understand why it wouldn't be the case for hydroponically or aquaponically grown plants. I am guessing, to a marigold nitrogen is nitrogen regardless of where it comes from? I will guess in the photos, there is not excessive nitrogen?


Got tomatoes, cauliflower and broccoli in. As mentioned previously, all my broccoli does is bolt straight to flower without producing any viable heads (more signs of excessive nitrogen? Faye suggested it might have been the phase of the moon when the seeds were planted.) The cauliflowers grow very slowly (sign that something else is awry, maybe a molybdenum deficiency too?). The tumbledown tomatoes are still small but are flowering and I saw quite a few bees in the vicinity yesterday so here's hoping for good pollination.


Yup, have tomatoes, miniature globe eggplants (with fruit, but the fruit wont ripen) and heaps of chilli seedlings in the system already.



Scott

Don't know where you're getting your info... even in soil... I've always dosed any flowering/fruiting/seeding plants with a Potassium supplement ... specifically to encourage flower/fruit/seed set.... and it most certainly, from my experience,works...

Everything I've been told suggests that plants will only take up as much Potassium as they need... and generally, in most soils there isn't enough...

Most soil gardens are trace element deficient or have pH problems that inhibit trace element uptake....

Aquaponics systems usually have neither problem...

And caulis in AP... what can I say...

Hi rupert,

Are these graffiti, cape, violet queen or other? Are yours the ones which turn bright green or dark green when cooked?

From the second photo I'd have a guess the, what looks like bracteoles on the surface are a sign of stress of that particular plant. The fact you also have leafy head could also be a sign these were planted too early in the season and/or the temperatures were too high when the curds are forming during the reproductive phase of growth. The smaller lower odd-coloured leaves could also indicate a molybdenum deficiency here too. My soil-grown cauliflowers last year had a similar appearance, but mine were much worse. This year, the cauliflowers in the ground were planted later and still appear to be doing quite well. The AP cauliflowers planted even later don't seem to be doing much at all atm (we're hoping they're just getting over some sort of planting out shock, which they will get over when the water nutrient levels balance out).

I occasionally flick through "Handbook of Plant Nutrition" by Barker and Pilbeam when I am at my Uni library. Great resource, although like most things it is aimed at the commercial growing in soil sector, but I still have found most of the information is transferable/scalable to my backyard projects.

Amazon.com


Scott

Sicilian Violet Cauliflower... and they retain most of their colour when cooked...

Nope, different plant, absolutely nothing wrong with it... just an indication that I left the cauli longer than I should have before picking it...

I was still eating the other one... :lol

Water Test 2 - compared with two days ago

Air Temp: 16C (overcast, passing showers)
Water Temp: 14C (steady)
pH: 6.8 (down from 7.2)
Ammonia: 2.0 (down from 3.0)
Nitrate: 30.0 (down from 60.0)
Nitrite: 1.0 (steady)
EC: 1.30 (still unusually high for my system without me tinkering with it, unless this is where it is supposed to be with this many fish?)

(I cannot get the white balance just-right on this camera, so the pics are slightly different to reality.)

Fish haven't been fed for two days. We've had some rain and the bore kicked in this morning for it's maintenance cycle. The water is still quite turbid (new balls added to grow bed yesterday) but it appears slightly less green than previous (or maybe just a different shade of green due to the other suspended particles?) Aerator is still continuously running and the pump is still 15/60 cycle by daylight.

Will avoid feeding fish for a few more days, keep the pond mostly covered and test again in two days. Still thinking about adding even more plants, it will take some shifting and rearranging and therefore time (a rare commodity these days). With the nitrogen levels coming down, maybe I can concentrate less on nitrogen-sink plants and more on beneficial plantings?


Scott

Definitely room for more plants there Bunson with your nitrate readings...

But don't worry about your nitrate reading... the fish wont be affected... so plant what you wish... not necessarily what you think you have to in order to bring the "nitrates" down...

And disregard the EC readings... that level is probably the lowest you'll go with AP... and I run my hydro at that level or higher...