Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've been digging up vegetables from our dirt garden washing off the roots and planting them in our four media grow-beds.
This is what some of the peppers looked like three weeks ago- The peppers were cupped when they were in dirt. During their short time in the media GBs the cupping had nearly gone and the leave are flattening out.



I'll do a set of water tests now.

Water temperature 63.5F (17.5C)
First on left: normal pH test pushing 7.6 or more. Second test High Range pH 8.0 - 8.2
Third from left ammonia 0 ppm and finally on the right: KH 13 drops aka 13ppm?
I'll post more pics in the next post

Interesting. How do you tell if potassium is down

I found a link in another thread which recommended this site: http://trueaquaponics.com/ Their fist entry suggests as a general guideline potassium is the most common deficiency in aquaponics. It goes on to suggest much more, but that's the first mineral listed

I usually start from which leaves are showing signs of deficiency, the old or the new leaves. This tells you about the mobility of the nutrients.

Mobile and Immobile Nutrients -
Mobile Nutrients - Deficiencies show on old growth first
Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Molybdenum, Magnesium and Zinc

Immobile Nutrients - Deficiencies show on new growth first
Iron, Copper, Manganese, Chlorine, Cobalt, Boron, Calcium, Sulfur

I thought it was interesting that they didn't list potassium bicarbonate as a cure for potassium deficiency, it also works as an anti-fungal and a buffering agent (so you don't have to buy a ton of different stuff). Since it's a buffering agent I just spray it on (1 Tbsp / gallon) if I don't want any changes in pH. Dasboot had a pretty good nutrient deficiency post he put up as well that you may want look for.

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What's your water temp at the moment?

Thanks Scotty, found them: http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25056 & http://www.mgofmc.org/docs/nutrientdeficiency.pdf

Shopping for supplements looking for pros and cons
Chelated Iron

For example is this the stuff that turns the water orange? It sure looks like dye.

When I go to make adjustments to our water which I've posted the specs on earlier what else might I need to square it away?
Our water is hard KH reads 12 -13 ppm Does this mean I may not need much Potassium Bicarbonate?
Scotty435 wrote: "What's your water temp at the moment?" Steady 63.5F

I forgot to mention; one of the cucumbers may have already gotten too chilled being next to the screened air vent. All the outdoor cucumbers are shriveled and pretty much gone. I do not believe frosted yet, they must be intolerant to clod weather.

I've got another fire in the wood stove this morning. The wood stove is next to the French doors leading into the greenhouse. We're also looking into a thermostatically controlled heater for the greenhouse, as it is not quite as sealed or deep in the earth as I want it to be, so we expect some significant temperature swings. Most importantly for me is I do not want it to freeze right away.
Trying to keep heat loss to a minimum and since our greenhouse aquaponics system is right here next to me desk I hope it doesn't suck all the heat out of the house making us close the doors.

Fe EDDHA turns the water red, is this what you're asking?

Temp looks OK but a bit low for peppers as expected for a cold water system. I don't think the water temp will be causing any major problems for the peppers but the optimum is around 68 or 70 F from what I could find. In some types of plants I've seen deficiencies caused by low temperatures - they don't function up to parr.

Watch that Kh description Brian, I know you weren't sure what each drop represented but..... each drop represents around 17 ppm so 12 drops represents around 204 ppm of CaCO3 hardness which is hard water. You won't need to add anything to increase the Kh anytime soon and maybe never if the top up water keeps it high. In the meantime check out the videos Dr. Nate Storey did on alkalinity (Kh) and pH adjustment for how he does it and why -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmPFdoRLDbM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP1rUMyklyc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCKYREoBos8

Basically what you will learn is that your carbonates and pH are high at this point but as nitrification kicks in they will fall. I like the way he adjusts the system and keeps his carbonates low so that he can control the pH more easily but - I'm a bit lazy and prefer not to have to adjust the pH every day like this so I actually like to have some carbonates and run my system pH a bit higher part of the time. Having high carbonates early on is not a bad thing because the nitrifying bacteria use inorganic carbon and Carbonates supply this in the form of CO2 which they can use in other ways - this is part of the process that helps them build up their numbers.

okay good and thank you for the info. Had to look up "Fe EDDHA"
I have watched some of Dr Nate Storey's vids, I'll go back and watch them again now that I've arrived at this point in my aquaponics education.
So I should be good with the small Amazon order of supplements? Anything missing from this basic toolbox?
I feel the need to have an assortment of whatever I need since we're in a remote location. What'd they call it in the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou? "A Geographical Oddity; Two Weeks From Anywhere!"

"Watch that Kh description Brian, I know you weren't sure what each drop represented but..... each drop represents around 17 ppm so 12 drops represents around 204 ppm of CaCO3 hardness which is hard water." Whoops good catch Scotty

As with most things there are differences in the way people do things - I've never purchased or used the Magnesium Carbonate so can't shed any light on whether you would actually need it. I'd ask whoever the recommendation came from.

The heater looks like it should work, sometimes the thermostats aren't very accurate and I notice that this doesn't indicate the actual temp you'll be getting on the dial so you'll have to figure that out (pretty much normal in this price range I think). You may be able to use a plug in digital thermostat like this if you find that the heater doesn't kick in at the same place as well as you like http://www.amazon.com/Lux-Heating-Cooling-Programmable-Thermostat/dp/B000E7NYY8.

edit: the 17 mg/L is just off the top of my head, I think it's close but there should be a table in the instructions for the kit that tell you the exact amount.

That Irons fine its DTPA which will put a slight yellow tinge to the water but hardly noticeable,it breaks down quickly in UV light so dose on an evening.

Thank you as well Andreas. Anything else I ought to get now while the getting is good?