Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm thinking I should just pull all the plants and give them to the fish... but now I have some other problem.

The baby spinach has always looked a bit sick but I put it down to whatever that infestation was. (those eggs have been there for a while)

But now the problem seems to be spreading to the lettuce.

readings are

pH 6.4
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates 40-80

The system is around a year old and smells delicious when you did around a bit.

Media is scoria so I would guess iron shouldn't be an issue at that pH

11 silver perch in a blue barrel

Temperatures have been 5c to 14c - mostly 10c

only 5 hours of direct sun but plenty of indirect light (ie its not down the side of the house or anything, its out in the open)

the lettuce is only just starting to show issues.

The strawberry plants look like they might be starting to show signs of it as well.



I added half a cap of seasol on the basis of most of rup's posts ending with either the words seasol, or eco rose

I've never had plant issues before.

I also thought it might have been a frost which is why I bought the glass house.

Glass house rocks

My FT is still 18c on a day where my topup water container (not yet in the glass house) didn't get past 12c

Hey bulwinkle just be carefull that you don't create too much of a water temperature fluctuation. I have noticed my green houses are quite warm up untill the sun goes behind the trees and then the temp drops off quite quickly, they are not the greatest design for keeping air in/out.

The FT temperature took all day to get to its max of 18c up from a overnight minimum of 8c.

and I presume it will be around 8c again by morning time.

What do you think too much is?

The fish dont seem to be showing any signs of stress, and the change is very gradual.

I was planing to try to even it all out with a phase change material to store some heat in as many 3 litre plastic milk bottles as I can fit. The plan is to lay them all around the base.

Perhaps that will give me something like 400L of extra heat capacity, and if its a pghase change material, that might store twice the heat as water. So I might be getting near an IBC full of water in heat capacity.

An australian native fish must be able to deal with the kind of temperature range that you might see in 24 hours in a 2 foot deep billabong, but I guess there is a big difference between endure, and enjoy.

But the big question is, how much is too much temperature variation?

Anyone and everyone?

The air temp has dropped off very quickly to almost the ambient temp ((6c outside air temp) its going to be a cold night), but the FT is still 17c 2 hours after the sun went down.

Just make sure you don't keep pumping through the tube up near the roof overnight since it will act as a chiller at night.

Dude, please tell me that laptop isn't out in the new BWGH for good, or even for a few hours at a time. Moisture vs electronics. Which one do you think will win?

On the discourse of heating/cooling, are you going to be doing scientific studies on temperature swings, constant temps with the mass thermal in milk jugs, and your solar black hose pipe thingy?

No the laptop wouldnt last more than a few minutes out there, that was just for the pic

Even my digital thermometer is in Tupperware.

But its a tough little bugger. It lasted out on the footpath for a while on hard rubbish collection day

The charge cable doesn't connect properly (unless you are handy with gaffer tape) and the batteries don't hold a charge.

So its more of a luggable rather than a laptop these days. Its getting on a bit and only has 250meg of ram, but it runs linux just fine.

Consistency is important. Where's the tape on your new Greenhouse?

Good one.

Luckily for me I disconnected it yesterday because it filled with air when I turned off the pump. It only ran for a few hours and I have no idea if it did anything.

I'll revisit it when I get some electronics skills if I ever get off this aquaponics "thing" and get to a new "thing". And then I think I'll heat my topup water rather than the fishtank.

Picaxe chips is the plan.

FT temp was 9c at 6am

Outside water was 4c

air temp in the glasshouse and outside was 4c

Watch this space

Sorry to see you're having troubles. Iron or Chelated iron looks like it might be the right thing to add BW. I'd go with the chelated iron myself. I'm sure the temperature swings are harder on the plants than on the fish. Looks like the media could be a little drier on top and it would help if this is partly a fungus problem.

cool, Ill drop the water level a bit.

I thought with a pH of 6.4 and running scoria there would be plenty of iron available.

Is there iron in seasol?

my hardware was out of iron so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Does everyone else think its iron deficiency given the scoria and pH?

Add the seasol, it looks more like potassium deficiency to me.