Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hello everyone,
after three weeks with my system i noticed growth and death of plants !!! so its levelled that it makes no progress at all.
here are system info:
- i've turned a regular 24 litter tank into aquaponics system so i didn't have to cycle, with 0.01 sam
- flooding and draining is continuously happening almost every 15 min.
- light is automatically turned on for 4,5 hours everyday
- i have five fish, three angelfish & two goldfish
- plants i used, cherry tomato (dead), mint (grow and die), sage (dead)

i don't get whats wrong!, first i had only angelfish and i thought its not making enough mess so i added goldfish, and still death!
i tried to use timing for flood and drain and many times drains happened way before the timer stops flooding and then water stays in grow bed for next flooding. I couldn't set timing so i left it to work continuously!
i tried to raise the root higher so it touches little of the water (because before, it was all covered with water) and no progress!!!

after making this long i want to make it short!!! >>>> help?!!!!!!!!

will appreciate any help
thnx

Sorry to hear that. I'm still new to this, but it sounds to me like the plants were getting to much water. We had a similar problem with our system, and had to change the timer to come on for 15 min and shut off for several hours to allow the bed to dry out some so the plants wouldn't have constant "wet feet."

You can't drown something like mint. It'll just make it more agressive.

I'm thinking light was your issue.

4-5 hours of artificial light doesn't sound like enough to me. What lights were you using?

Also, new systems work well if you add something like seaweed extract until they build up the nutrients naturally. Gives it a boost.

EDIT.

Not knowing what you've got available in Israel, make sure it's a pure seaweed extract, not one with artificial fertilisers, they can have bad affects on fish.

I'm new as well, but it may be a combination of thing.

What are your Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate readings? Tank temp?

4-5 hours of light doesn't seem like enough. I'm guessing your plants would rather have 12-18 hours of light per day. But, I grow outside so I could be wrong.

Also what type of light?
LEDs? flouro? incandecent?
The light issue sounds like it could be it.
You didnt mention your filtration at all, what sort of filtration?
Israel can get pretty hot? what sort of temps are you running? (plants dont like the water to be hot, they rather cooler water and hotter air than the other way around)

If that's all the light they are getting then it's not enough. Regarding the timing of the flood and drain, is this timed flood and drain or flood and drain with siphons? It sounds like with siphons because you are running it continuously

There is usually a hole in the standpipe near the bottom so the grow bed can slowly drain if the timer stops during flooding. A little 1/8 inch hole is all it takes. Depending on how you're setup you can flip the standpipe if for some reason you don't want it draining. The siphon version also uses this hole. Constant Flood usually doesn't but it depends on the size of the sump or tank the bed drains to.

If you're using a standpipe you can also shorten it to keep the water level lower. The water should be no higher than 25mm under the surface of the media (unless starting seeds, when it can be higher for a short period). Some pictures of the system would help.

Cheers

Thank you so much for all your replies...

Okay i'm using 9 watt fluorescent light for my mini aquaponics to light whats left of the mint.
i have zero ammonia, zero nitrite and just under 25 mg/l nitrate (the only filtration is biological of the substrates)
water temp. is around 26 c, summer temperatures still not here yet and water might get above 30 c (but now its low)
I built the system with automatic siphon (but i didn't understand how to make a slow drain out of the standpipe when timer is off )
i will try making changes you guys suggested and hope everything will be alright!
here is a picture of the system hope the link works

http://postimg.org/image/o292vgysz/


image url

might score a spot on "epic fail"

As well as the lack of light, flooding and draining a bed with rubble that big wont work as it wont retain any moisture. Run it constant flood

Couldn't find any recent pics of the hole in the standpipe but here is an old thread with a couple of versions courtesy of Food and Fish to give you the idea. Further down is an adjustable version. Since the standpipe is not glued in it can be twisted or removed (depending on the fittings used).

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2537&hilit=hole+standpipe&start=75

Cheers

Thanks Mantis, the rubble actually small only the ones on surface are big just for beauty...
Thank you so much Scotty, i appreciate it a lot i will give it a look

wish me luck