Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have built a system before - in the past - it seemed to do much better than this one when I began experimenting with hanging pots into my fish tanks filled with gravel. I think it may be something to do with the fact that the system was a little older with cichlids so it may have had a stronger bio system going. I realize that the net cups with 6" of room underneath are too shallow now and will be replacing the containers in the photos with deeper containers with 12" of 1/4 vermiculite 3/4 perlite mixture covered with 4" of pea gravel to lighten the load and still serve as a deep grow bed.

When replaced it will still flood and drain approx 45 minutes between cycle dumps.

I am attempting to use two 55 gallon tanks I pulled off of their stands to the floor that are about 3.5 months old in cycle and run at

*180+ gh - 65-80kh - 7.0 ph (which id like to lower if not for the sake of my fish - right now 6 goldfish and a fully stocked tropical fish tank which are linked together) Finally the nitrites at zero with nitrates at a steady 80ppm which will go up when I link 300 more gallons in tanks underneath with more fish.

3 bloom beast lamps 520 watt led - full spectrum - running only seedling knob at 100% - with SEED - VEG - BLOOM turned all the way up it is way too bright for what I have growing. I also do not run the 432w t5ho at the moment - i was waiting for some need for side lighting.

I added EDDHA iron chelate and liquid seaweed by maxicrop 0-0-1. I added a generous dose of .6 tbsp for the 110 gallons im currently running, with a cup of liquid seaweed. The yellowing in the lettuce seemed to improve but then everything just began looking stagnated again. This was about two weeks ago. I added the same doses last night because I did a small water change and I thought maybe I removed some of the nutrients when doing so.

I am getting frustrated because anything that I threw into a pot with gravel and hung in my old tanks would flourish and the lights were only 100w daylight 6500k cfl twisty bulbs. I grew a tomato plant from the floor to the ceiling with those lights in the old system but the clusters would only produce 3 tomatoes at most. STILL a decent grow for first time experiment (in older photos on instagram) I have 2 520w BLOOMBEAST led lights hanging over my plants right now, a third in storage because the two are more than enough for what it currently growing - but the two are only running with the seedling knob 100% - veg knob off and flower knob off. They have three dimmable settings I am hoping that the problems I am having are with the tank water and will eventually subside when I add the deeper grow beds - which in turn definitely will add a ton of surface area for bacteria.

If anyone can see right off the bat what my problem is because of the leaves in the photos it would take some stress off of my shoulders because I feel like I am not doing something and it will get worse if I dont figure out what it is.

http://s6.photobucket.com/user/forteeOZ ... t=3&page=1

INSTAGRAM - shows the system better - MISTERJOSHUAAA
http://www.pictame.com/user/misterjoshuaaa/1099651186

Bump

I do see that you've got a mineral deficiency showing in at least some of the plant photos (Dark veins with interveinal chlorosis) but not sure which one at this point (could be iron but looks like it might be something else). I'm better with photos under natural light.

Basically if you get the deficiency taken care of the plants should take off (if that's the only deficiency).

Most of the time poor plant growth is due to feed inputs. Remember, the only nutrient input into the system is feed, you want more/better plant growth? Look at more fish, so more feed, and perhaps a better fish feed.