Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks for the kind words! Must admit though... doubt I would clad like that again. Dressing that meany bits of timber was a right PITA!

Actually looking at that... Im wondering if the fish will have enough light to see? i doubt it now i think about it! Might get my holesaw and know some holes in the lid end pieces..

Hey guys. System is going well, added another 15 silvers to the system about.. 8 days ago.

I kept them in a seperate tank for 1 week, salted to 6ppt. They seemed fine so they got moved into the main tank.

What has me worried though is when I've been cleaning my little filters (small one in each grow bed to catch some of the solids) I've found little white bits of slime, 3 times in the last week. It almost looks a bit like phlegm!

I've attached a photo.. what do you think it could be? I know ich is ment to travel and spread so I'm getting all worried thinking it is some weird problem I've introduced.

But, I've only ever seen the 3 little chunks so who knows.. it is very much mucus consistency.

It's tough to tell from the picture and I can't say for certain what it is but if I had to guess it's probably bacterial growth on some food source, maybe some fish chow that didn't get eaten. Anyway I'm pretty sure it's nothing to be concerned about. Bacteria often produce a slime layer and if you've ever looked at bacterial cells on an agar plate, they can be different colors. Even the same organism on different media cane give different colors. Same is true for other organisms like yeasts. Here's an example at the bottom of this page -

http://textbookofbacteriology.net/growth_2.html

Yeah, that was my first thought too - something growing on a piece of food or similar. Definitely not ich, Mr Water, the visible cycts are only ever on fish and get to 1-2 mm at the most.

Ah that is good news then. Thanks guys! I'll still keep an eye out but it's a relief knowing that.

Apart from that, and a weird deficiency on my cukes, everything is growing great! I'll attach some photos as a bit of an update.





The potato plants in particular are... amazingly fast growing.



Pic of the affected cukes, very strange. Small dead spots between veins, yet not all are effected.

Assuming this is not related to any bug or disease, some nutrient deficiencies can be pretty much ruled out by that description, and some can be ruled in... Lack of macronutes (N, P, K) - not likely. Lack of Calcium, Sulfur, Boron, Copper, Molybdenum or Zinc - not likely. Deficiencies which can result in yellowing or necrotic spots between veins: Magnesium, Iron, and Manganese.

Magnesium is mobile in plants. With Magnesium deficiency, the plan moves its magnesium to growing tissus, so deficiencies appear first in older leaves. How do old leaves look in comparison to new leaves?

Manganese is not mobile in plants. With Manganese deficiency, the yellowing between veins is first noted on new growth.

Iron is not mobile in plants. With Iron deficiency, older leaves remain green with chlorotic (insufficient chlorophyll) yellow or pale areas between veins on young leaves.

Those spotted leaves in your closeup don't appear to be new growth. I think that would point to Magnesium deficiency. Some more pics with comparisons of old growth to new growth might help.

There are many on this forum super-experienced at "spot-the-deficiency", so lets see how this analysis holds before you start tossing in extra. Excess Magnesium interferes with Calcium uptake.

Such a delicate balance we take responsibility for when we play God with the garden (and fish!)

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Sam

Can you safely rule this out? Look at this pic of Thrip damage on a cucumber leaf:



One suggestion for finding thrips is to remove leaves from an affected plant and gently tap them over a piece of white paper. Thrips are extremely small, about 1/25" (1mm) in size and the nymphs are off-white in color.



--
Sam

Might be a deficiency, might be squash bug damage and looks from what Sam posted like it could be thrips. As Sam pointed out it would help to know which leaves are affected, old or new and if only some of either group are affected I think that might indicate an insect problem (depending on how the injuries are distributed). Look on the underside of the leaves for pests one way or the other, it's always good to know what the next problem is going to be before it happens .

More pics of thrip damage on cucumber leaves...





--
Sam

Some new, some old. Brand new leaves are clear but there are marks on leaves around 20mm large, so they still are very young leaves.

Very! Interesting photos about the thrips, i had been over the plants 2 or 3 times looking for any sign of bugs, and only found a few black aphids on neibouring plants.

Iron is regularly added, and I also suspected magnesium so I added 1 teaspoon of epson salts about a week ago after looking at some light mottling of the leaves. Another 2 teaspoons about 2 days ago.

Potassium has been added in bicarbonate form as PH control in the past so doubt I would be deficient..

One of the plants is showing signs of what I think is magnesium, or maybe potassium deficiency. But they should all be fine.. I hope!

Actually after I noticed the aphids, i papertoweled the surface of the garden beds and applied eco oil to them, and the surrounding plants.
So I maybe have solved my problem with the thrips if that is the case!

I am away for the next 2 days, so hopefully it shows signs of improvement when I return.

Thanks all for your eagle-eyed spotting!

Nice system Mr Water!

Thank you very much!

It's almost 12 and I can't sleep, so it's time to be contemplative!

I've got to admit, I feel a bit young to say things like this but I really wish more people my age could experience growing some of their own food. Being able to go and pick a fresh meal every day is an amazing feeling. Not only does it allow you to respect the quality of produce we take for granted but allows me to try to become slightly self sufficient which is a very satisfying feeling, surely in anyone's book. Nothing more relaxing then going to do my checks/fish feeding.

I really do appreciate all the people who have made this site what it is, and allowed me to experience this myself with minimal Iearning curve due to everyone's shared experience.

With that out the way, a snap of tonight pickings. It's great being able to produce about.. close to 50% of the food we eat! All that's left is grains and meat!

For anyone that is curious, we currently have cucumbers, 4 types of tomatos, multiple varieties of lettuce, spring onions, onions, spinach, silverbeet, goya (bitter melon), many types of beets, radishes, capsicums, chillies, strawberries, various herbs, radishes and possible a couple I've forgotten. Soon to add eggplant and watermelon to the mix.

Of course not all of these are ready to eat right now but still, not a bad list!

Bit of an update,

Built a basic radial flow filter and got it in today.




I still need to think of a way to secure the center bucket, but it actually floats right there and didn't move! Might actually work like that.

Not sure if not being in the center will effect it's efficiency though.. we shall see.

Hopefully sculpting a slightly conical bottom and sealing with silicon pays off. That was a nightmare job