Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All
First post on the forum.
I have a v.small, v.basic system I am attempting to get working in my kitchen.
The plants will not grow. Seeds germinate and sprout and then almost immediately die.

It consists of the a 15L fish tank
2X fish (one goldfish;~8cm , one orlanda;~5cm)
2X shrimp ~3cm.
Feed on 2-3 sticks a day.

It is set on a constant flow into a top terracota plant pot and flows then from the bottom into two more before returning to the tank. Total media volume is ~5.5L of pea gravel. The sweating from the pots results in the need for a 1L top every ~2 weeks.

The system has been running for 3-4 months. and starting with a neutral pH and has steadily risen to 8.1ish.
(The pH was 7.6 at the beginning of May).

NH4+ = 0.25PPM or less
NO2- = 0
pH = 8.1
NO3- = 0

There is not an awful lot of natural light but that doesn't really explain why the plants are flat out dying. The pH is obviously high but others on here still have things growing at that level.

Do I not have enough fish?
Do I need to feed more?
Is it light?

Any help much appreciated.

My guess would be light, but it's hard to tell without seeing it.
Have u got any pictures of the setup.

Probably a combination of low light and feed type. Pics usually help.

@moonfish - +1 for pictures, we will need to take a look at how your system is setup for a better understanding. Based on what you explained, i would agree with Charlie and Hezzy89.

Regards

Just my opinion which is going to go against what has been posted but it wont have anything to do with feed or light if your plants are flat out dying,even in plain water and low light you will end up with spindly malnourished seedlings,if there flat out dying there is another environmental issue here,pics could show whats going on,especially the pots.

Yep, pics will be very helpful in deciding what the problem is. My plants died from lack of light. I was afraid my fish to die as well. So i cleaned the dead plants and bought new ones. No I replaces the aquarium to other well-lit place. You can try this, too.

Not sure if this will work but here is an attempt at a picture
I forgot to mention there is also a small air pump.

I think it should work ok, only things I can see is with no standpipe as such. The water might be flowing through the gravel to direct, so it's wetting seeds to germinate but not enough all the time.

Also natural light is needed to make them grow properly or try a filtered light from a pet shop with the correct uv to grow plants.

And you mentioned the pot plants sweating a lot, maybe the heat from being no natural airflow or warmer days inside could be warming pea gravel to burn such small seeds

Hope this gives you a few things to look at.
Cheers

Hey there moonfish,

What type of plants have you been trying to grow so far and which ones have you put in now?

There is no NO3 at all in the water? It would be interesting to know how much light comes to your little AP system, as well as how much iron, potassium, and phosphates you have (depending on what plants you were trying to grow potassium and phosphates may become more important but regular salads for example would require NO3 and not as much of the other nutrients compared to e.g. tomatoes or capsicum).

I have a 200L AP system in my apartment, which I have equipped with LED lights (DIY stuff) and I have a PH value somewhere between 7.8 and 8.1. Without adding any extra fertilizers (iron, potassium) at that PH value only salads were able to grow but rather slowly. Herbs didn't work that well because it is more difficult for them to take up nutrients at that PH value but as mentioned before, there were not enough nutrients in the system because I didn't add any. Now I am trying only salads and parsley at the moment and I am adding iron and potassium and I do notice a good difference in growth now.

I think that, seeing from the picture, you will require a bit more light and in general more nutrients. 2 fish and 2 shrimp will most likely not produce a lot of nitrates. If you have an airpump in there the water should be aerated well enough for the roots not to rot so that is something good already. How did the plant die and how did the leaves look?

Cheers

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Light, or possibly light, but maybe light... I suspect it will be light.. but I am usually wrong..
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