How to ensure plants (& fish) get required nutrients.

janethesselberth

Partially correct, Emsjoflo. The other part of soil is the organic part -- decaying plant and animal matter. Soil is classified by the balance of sand, clay and organic material. (Around here, we have clay.)

Jaymie

veggie boy wrote:

Rupert - yesterday I bought a mineral supplement product called Min Plus. It is crushed volcanic rock from Innisfail. It cost $13.50 for a 10kg bag from my local landscape joint/hardware. To see if there is a supplier near you, e-mail the manufacturer from the wesiteHERE.

I have posted some pics below of the packaging - which included mineral content analysis. Different products of this nature contain different levels of oomph - but as we don't need that much in our systems (being closed an all) I think the Min Plus product will be fine.

Um, I think I've done pretty well.... I emailed them, the guy rang today (but I was out). He has warehouses in town, he comes down each week and will bring me a 20kg bag next Friday (well Axl will pick it up, won't you darling

). The most important bit is this is costing me .... $8.80

monya

Cheaper than other places sell smaller bags

veggie boy

Your local nature makes that not very suprising - but good for you all the same.. I'm happy that it is available here and the amount that I will use still makes it very cheap.

Jaymie

the marvellous man delivered it straight to Axl at work

What a very nice man :cheers:

veggie boy

Copy of something I just posted in Les' thread which is also relevant here:

Quote:

Les - On the subject of rock dust, most of my minplus has now found its way to the sump and was getting stirred up and pumped into the tank - making the tank water rather cloudy.

I actually ended up cleaning out the sump for this reason - there was other residue there also that I was getting sick of, including residue fromt he CaCO3. I think with my big system I will work on a way to isolate these things from the fish tank - while still allowing them to disolve intot he water and give the desired benefits. This could just be a matter of housing them in some sot of trickle filter run off a small pump running water from the sump, into the trickle device and then back to the sump. Water flow would be slow enought so as not to stir up the stuff in the decive, but enough to have water continually exposed to the solids containing the minerals etc.

EllKayBee

Yes, I asked for updates as J & Axl put it to use also (somewhere :scratch:

)

soc

gday I am acomplete novice at this but Ihave used goat droppings on my plants as well as in my fish tank and so far touch wood it does not seem to have a detrimental effect on the fish mind you they are only goldfish Ihave also added some hydroponic solution to help speed things up

Food&Fish

veggie boy wrote:

Copy of something I just posted in Les' thread which is also relevant here:

Quote:

Les - On the subject of rock dust, most of my minplus has now found its way to the sump and was getting stirred up and pumped into the tank - making the tank water rather cloudy.

I actually ended up cleaning out the sump for this reason - there was other residue there also that I was getting sick of, including residue fromt he CaCO3. I think with my big system I will work on a way to isolate these things from the fish tank - while still allowing them to disolve intot he water and give the desired benefits. This could just be a matter of housing them in some sot of trickle filter run off a small pump running water from the sump, into the trickle device and then back to the sump. Water flow would be slow enought so as not to stir up the stuff in the decive, but enough to have water continually exposed to the solids containing the minerals etc.

I added CaCO3 directly to the start of the nft chanels as the water flows over it uses what it needs no problem

earthbound

G'day Soc... Do you have goats for a fresh supply of manure?

Be careful with adding the hydroponic solution, don't want to hurt your fish, or the bacteria that will be building up in your system. Have you got many goldfish?

soc

we have goats for milk and the manure is a bonus we use for the garden Ive got about a dozen goldfish and I am using an old cast iron bath as my fish tank had 2commit suicide last night by jumping out of the tank

Jaymie

today I added 12 cups (about 3Kg) of Min Plus to the tops of the growbeds. I then watered it in. The water silted up almost immediately

It should clear in a day or two. It's raining now, that seems to help with settling.

Jaymie

soc wrote:

we have goats for milk and the manure is a bonus we use for the garden Ive got about a dozen goldfish and I am using an old cast iron bath as my fish tank had 2commit suicide last night by jumping out of the tank

maybe try some fencing mesh or similar over the top of the tub to save them from themselves.

EllKayBee

Seems like we need to work out a method to keep more of the MinPlus in the GBs.

1)vb's idea of 1st adding to a watering can is good as the dust gets wet before going into the GB's
2)Water the GB with the "dust/mud" after the drain cycle to give the particles a chance to stick to gravel and not wash straight out - possibly increase the time to when the next flood cycle starts in that bed

Jaymie

I had a mild panic when I saw the dust in the bag. I thought "crap they've sent me cement instead :shock:

"

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How to ensure plants (& fish) get required nutrients.

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics