Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Aquaponics system not doing well. I have been running my system for about three months now. It was doing great until last week. All of a sudden all my plants starting showing signs of dying. Anyhelp would be greatly appriciated. Below is all the photos I can provide. Its a 75 gallon tank with 14 GF in it.

https://imgur.com/a/X3Utj
https://imgur.com/a/jIjJD

What type of plant is that with the white edges?

It is this sir. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelargoni ... itrosum%27

Some pelargoniums/geraniums are supposed to have white leaf edges, is this one of those varieties?

A few things might be affecting your system.

1. You're going into a period with short day lengths and less light coming in through the window as well as lower temps. The crops that look the worst are warm weather crops and they are near a window. As long as you can extend the daylength this would probably be a good time to switch to crops that do better in cool weather, like lettuce, kale, chard ...

2. I'm noticing that the seedlings aren't getting enough light - you can tell because they appear to be stretching. Having less light through the window and having to keep the lights up high for the larger plants is probably part of the problem.

3. Looks like you might have some potassium deficiency going on but I'm not positive about this.

4. Your pH is at the bottom of the scale for your kit. The pH could be much lower than what it is reading. This could affect nutrients as well as the bacterial filter and the fish. Nitrification tends to drive the pH down over time and it appears that your system doesn't have a lot of buffering capacity. Shell grit, Potassium Bicarbonate, Calcium Hydroxide and Potassium Hydroxide can be used to raise the pH but proceed with caution and follow all instructions for handling - the last two are especially strong.

Note - for raising pH - There are several different ways to do this - from most basic to least basic --> Hydroxides, Bicarbonates, Carbonates. Do not change the pH by more than .4 points during a single application.

Thanks scotty. I don't think the leaves are supposed to turn white. I forgot to mention but I also added in 500 red wiggler worms a week ago. Should i pull out the large crops and lower the light? I run my lights from 7pm to 10pm. Do you think ill get more growth if i lower the lights for my lettuce seedlings. They have been growing for three weeks. Yes im going to get a more accurate ph monitor such as this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00025 ... _pC_nS_ttl.
Thanks for all your help once I get a better tester ill post more info.

//EDIT just ordered the above product. Will post results monday when it arrives.

You should get stronger growth if you lower the lights as long as they aren't so close that the heat is a problem for the plants. Lettuce is probably a good choice in terms of it's lighting needs if you don't have a lot of light to work with.

Got my results in. First off im thinking I need a bigger light. My dual 36w t8's are not doing it. I got amazing growth just by moving my lettuce over a few inches. So these were the results when I tested the water. 7.0 ph, 0ppm ammonia, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 20ppm. I think these are decent results. Im thinking about going for this light http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XC3LBIW/ref=cm_sw_su_dp its a 600w. Any opinions on it?


Lettuce

The test results do look good . I'm not up on my indoor lighting using LEDs so I'll let someone who knows more about those help you out. I used to do well with a 400 Watt HID light setup using a daylight spectrum bulb and some T8 fluorescents (Tomatoes would need more watts than I had). Don't forget to treat for the deficiency as well.

I got a question to ask.. did you change your fish feed recently.?

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Definitely have some nutrient deficiencies going on and I think Cookie is probably trying to get you to look at changes to your feed since this could be a part of the problem as well. Any news on how things are going for your setup?