Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm not sure if she was the one with eggs before. There were no eggs in her mouth and she wasn't carrying any when she died..... I did read several of the threads from end to end. There's a lot of good info...

Guys are such jerks!

There has been some discussion lately about F&D cycles and I believe the general consensus has been that about anything will work OK. Now I'm beginning to wonder.... I read in one post that it's important to have x amount of time with the roots in the water.

When I built my system I put larger siphons in than I had in my prototype, thinking it would be good to have a fast drain cycle. All my plants were living in the new system but the growth was anything but fast. I assumed that it was because my nitrate levels weren't high enough yet.

So last week before leaving town for a few days I changed my timers to F&D more often. When I returned home after three days everything had taken off. My brocoli had doubled in size. Basil that was more or less dormant and yellow was now bushy and green, etc., etc.

I'm going to change my siphons today to make them drain slower and see what happens. Anybody want to guess????

I would say you are more likely to have nitrates now...

Nitrates are still at 30-40, no change....

In my older system, plants took off straight away when planted, but in the revamped 4 barrel system it has been really slow starting - very low water temps too though.

Maybe you need to leave town more often.

What were the timings before and what are they now?

It is sometimes really hard to say if the sudden burst of growth was due to the change in pump timing, the change in fish load, or just simply the plants suddenly taking off on their own. I know your broccoli could easily just have been the plants at the stage to suddenly increase top growth (small seedlings are funny that way sometimes where you get the first few true leaves and they stall for a week or so before taking off.)

Just because the Nitrates are still the same, does not mean the production of them is still the same. The the plants are just taking up the difference.

Glad you are seeing good growth!

Male Tlapia can get very agressive with their female partners,,one method commonly used is to remove the males upper lip. This stops him from being able to grasp and remove the females scales,,,,cruel for the male but nice for the lady. Seperation after the male has fertilised the eggs is nicer.

Here's another question for the group. I'm adding 4 new growbeds to my system. This will double the size. The gravel will also be new. This is an addition so it'll be getting a portion of the water that is now circulating through my existing GB's. So here's the question:

Do I need to wait before planting or can I start planting now? My Nitrates are at 40 and the plants in my existing system are growing well.

You can plant, but they wont do as well as the original beds until they are established. When I add beds I plant straight away, then two weeks later - off they go

I did remove the lip of one of my male tilapia, but he was still too rough. The thing that worked much better was to put one younger male in with two older females. Everyone is living happily together now.

Thanks Janet. I've seen that in one of your threads and I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. I have about 70 fingerlings and I know some are old enough. I think I'll sex them next week and put one of the young males with my older females with a couple of hides.

What
So the growth is not just about what's in solution in the water (this is common to both growbeds), but something else ? Hmmm... .very interesting... hmm...

(That 'something else' could be the solids, the bacteria, maybe those that even grow on the roots themselves, or mycorrheal fungi or whatever that name is I don't know.)

Thats what I believe, but have been wrong numerous times before