Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has something in your aquaponic system got blackspot on Timmy? What?
Sulpur is used as a fungicide in garden situations and I understand that garlic contains sulphur, so it may be possible for you to plant garlic to counter blackspot in an aquaponic situation.

I have heard of people using cornmeal against some types of fungus but I don't know enough of the specifics to give an actual recipe.

I know a garlic spray can work against many pests (though it is also probably bad for beneficial bugs) I don't know if it would be strong enough against black spot.

not in my AP but it's right beside my fish pond and i'm pretty hesitant to go spraying anything toxic near it.

Hence why I set up this thread to explore safe treatments. I'm currently not spraying anything around my system that I would hesitate to ingest myself.

Hum, Fungus. I might need to investigate urine as a treatment for that. I know peeing on your own feet in the shower is supposed to help against athletes foot.

Not that I ingest urine directly but since I've been running a pee ponic system, I can't really count urine as something all that toxic in my own book.

plain old dusting sulfur looks like it would do the job but it's affect on the pond ph might be lethal?

For all the good that will do you may as well go and pee in the tank

A little more thought on the "cause / prevention" , may be needed , rather than treating the symptoms.

I'll do some googling tonight ,, at work !!!! AHH only ONLY during my dinner-break ,, LOL.

RE: ant repellant
When I first started my sytem circulating and transplanted chard and lettuce from rised bed dirt garden I had a swarm of ants. I had read that corn meal would attract them and they would haul it home to the next and it would kill them. I tried it in a saucer in the grow bed without effect....they ignored it. So I moved the saucer to the floor near the G.B. leg that they climbed up. The swormed the stuff and in a week were all gone. A month later and no sign of them.

I've been told that corn grits will work that way too. I've tried it and one time it seemed to work, other times it didn't.

Ants - I have been told yeast mixed with honey works. Aparently ants eat it and the yeast kills them.

Thats kind of like that fungus thing the mushroom guy did. The ants eat it and the fungus grows in them killing them and even sprouting mushrooms our of their heads.. Cool..

I don't know if potassium carbonate (KHCO3) has been mentioned as a treatment before but I found a great website decribing what it can do.

http://www.ccof.org/pdf/Cert_News_Resou ... bonate.pdf

Apparently, it works well on powdery mildew on cucurbits and grapes, early blight on tomatoes and mold on strawberries and controls downey mildew. It also used as a preventative for these diseaes as well as a cure. Potassium carbonate can injure plants so be careful using it. Since it is a pH adjuster, it will not harm fish or bacteria.

Seeing as powdery mildew apparently attacks plants suffering potassium def that makes sense and some other mildews are controlable by changing the pH of the leaf surface, it makes sense there too. Some people use potassium carbonate to adjust the pH in their systems. Sounds good.

Some discussion of Potassium Bi-carbonate, Potassium Carbonate and other compounds here ... viewtopic.php?p=110446