Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My system has been running since Dec. 25 2013 and I haven't been able to harvest anything. Everything is growing really slow. My tomato plants started growing good and then they seem to have just stopped and the leaves are drying up. Lettuce and spinach have really good color but are just staying small. My system is indoors I have about 750 watts of CFLs on 18 hrs a day. I'm thinking its my water and air temp. water temp is around 45F and air is about 58F. Any info would help.

Thank you Scott

I had a small system once that acted this way. I would definitely warm the water to something over 75. Also, are you sure you have a complete cycle because its my understanding that the process is significantly prolonged at such low temps. This could be causing many of your issues. Please post your ammonia, nitrite, narrate and pH levels.

Winter in Maine, and slow growth... would be expected. As Aboman said, you need to get a bit of heat into your system.

How are all the plants colour wise? Lack of light could potentially be contributing to the problem- how big an area are you illuminating with 750W? How does the intensity compare with sunlight? A camera light meter and an 18% grey card can tell you that if you don't have a dedicated light meter.

Of course, nutients, pH and various other factors could be contibuting as well.

Yep, temp and light as others have mentioned. Ive seen very few successful small indoor AP systems to be honest and usually this is for both the same reasons but I suppose its up to the individual what they are expecting of it.

Water temp for sure. Get a cheap aquarium heater and get that water temp up. Also make sure your lights are close to the canopy, 12" off would be great. Hard to do that when growing tall tomatoes with short lettuces and greens but very important for indoor growing. I believe it is called the law of inverse squares, give it a read.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... /isql.html

I've designed some MEGA lighting systems, it all comes back to math and formulas.

Thanks guys my bed size is 3 feet by 4 feet pH is 6.5 just a trace of nitrate 0 for nitrite and ammonia. The color of spinach and lettuce look nice and dark green. But my tomato plants are getting really purple. Some of the lower leaves on my broccoli plants have a tint of purple. There is about 125 gallons of water in my system between the fish tank, sump tank, and the swirl filter. I'm thinking about cutting that down to help raise the water temp.

I think purple tomato leaves = Phosphorus deficiency. I'm getting a bit of that in mine, but not too concerned as they are just about done for this summer.

Yeah sounding more and more like a heat issue with the levels you posted. Ryan point about the lighting is right on as well.

As for possible help with the water temps. I live in Spokane WA so it gets frigid in the winter here too. I had a small system in my garage for a while and ran into similar challenges. Here are a few things I did to fix things.

1. Get the tank off the ground (if not already). At a minimum it should be sitting on plywood or rigid insulation works well.

2. I found that small fish tank heaters did nothing for me and the ones that are big enough were way too expensive. So I built a heater I found directions for online for about $50 and it works great. It worked so well I am now using it to help heat my 1000gal system. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWZ3qQ3R8_A for details.

3. If building a water heater is not something you want to jump into then I found positioning a small space heater within a foot or so blowing on the side of the tank made a BIG difference in water temp even though the heater was not large enough to heat the overall room.

Good Luck!

Thanks guys I think i'm just going to wait until i scan get my set up outside.

Purple tomato leaves are from being to cold. I can watch my starter toms turn from purple on the underside to green as it warms up through the day in my greenhouse. I tried some putting some of the starts in my growbeds and they stay purple because the water temp is around 50 even when air temps gets over 80. The same seeds were started at same time, left in flats and are taken in when below 70. They are 3 times larger and turn a little purple when I put them out below 70 or so.