Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So my system has been up and running now for three months now. The fish and yabbies are happy but the veggies aren't great.

The past few weeks my nitrates have been around 40-80ppm.

I thought I should put some more plants in but a lot of them aren't doing well.

A lot of the greens are droopy. Strawberries are losing colour and my chilli and capsicum plants are dropping the flowers, so no fruit.

Any ideas what I need to do?

Looks like a potassium or magnesium deficiency. Green veins, with yellow on the rest of the leaves, treat for potassium first. The Seasol powerfeed will bring all the levels back up.

But it's strange it's not affecting the other plants.

You are taking off the dirt from the roots? And not damaging the roots when they are put in?

Yep. I try and get all of the dirt of and am pretty careful.

How often and how much Seasol should I be adding?

I think it's pretty hard to overdose with it. Somebody else can probably help with quantities.

I usually just slash it in, if the water changes colour, I've put a bit too much in, but fish are always fine, and it'll clear up in a day or so.

What has the PH level been running at ?

Looks like trace element issue to me. Interveinal chlorosis usually manganese. Manganese sulphate foliar would do the trick. Could also be iron deficiency.

It's still quite high. 7.4.

I also did a rough salinity check using my brewing hydrometer. I calculated the salt at being about 3-4 ppt.

This could also explain a few things right?

Most plants will be fine with the salt, strawberries being one of the exceptions.

Seasol will have manganese and all the other trace elements you'll need.

My FT is 450L, ST about 600L and GB about 150L. So about 1000L in total.

I added 15ml of Seasol to the GB yesterday along with 10ml of Iron Chelates.

Is that enough, or should I add some more juice?

It's hard to overdose it, I'd add the same again, and then wait a week, if the colour isn't improving, add some more.

I wouldn’t worry about 7.4 on a new system,i asked just in case it was 8.4 or the like,i was thinking along the lines of Nutrient lockout.
If it was me i would drop the salt closer to 2ppt.