Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does anyone know if you can use this on your plants? or does it harm the fish.

I have a 500Lt fish tank with 12 trout in at about 200mm long. There is 3 growbeds at about 450Lts. I don't think there is enough Nitrates for all the plants. The plants are all healthy and green but growing very slowly. I wondered if I could add THRIVE to the plants to make them grow.

This doesn't answer the question directly, but are you aware you can pee in the tank to provide extra ammonia? You can also buy urea from your LFS if you take heaps of drugs or something.

ABSOLUTELY NO..... Thrive has an additive that is known to be fatal to fish.... as at least one member has found in the past.... killed the lot....

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=722&p=17758&hilit=+thrive#p17758

Thanks. I had a packet in the shed but thought I would ask you guys before hand.

I know I can pee in the tank and let the bacteria do it's thing but I feel funny putting ammonia in the tank since that is what killed most of my fish in the beggining.

Post your test results and water temperature Shane... it will give us a better idea of just where your system is at the moment...

And how much are you feeding the trout?

It just sounds like that you just don't have enough fish to supply all those beds. But it sounds like you are just starting off so be patient.

If you haven't had a plant boom yet then you are in for a surprise, once the system finds its balance you will see the plants take off.

Don't forget the fish are going to grow bigger. I say (if you are fully cycled) just increase the amount of food you are feeding the trout...

water temp 10
PH 6.5
Nitrite 0
ammonia 0

No test for nitrate in my kit

The area where I have the vegies is very cold, 4c this morning and I know that half of my vegies are summer plants. This might be a factor also.

I had a really high nitrite reading for a while and then after 5 weeks from starting, the Nitrite dissapeared. So from that I assumed it had cycled but now a few weeks later and no real good growth. I need to get another test kit to see how much nitrate. I am assuming there is some but very little.

My conclusion is I need more fish or add some nitrogen to plants.

Later on in the year I will have a 3000Lt tank where I will get 100 silver perch

If you want to add trace nutrients, use seasol concentrate. A small splash in 500 litres should be good. If you want more nitrates add a teaspoon of dry urea (or 1 dose of humonia). Test 2 - 3 days later.

Its just too cold to grow plants really fast this time of year, except peas

I have been putting diluted seasol straight on the plants every fortnight. Can I put diluted urea on to the growbed? The lettuces are growing and I have just started off some peas but I have tomatoes, silverbeet, eggplant, brocolli, colliflower, spinach and chard that are just sitting there looking healthy but not growing.

cant beat a slash for extra ammonia

just be aware that a little goes a long way and there may be a day lag before the ammonia registers.......... (i can get technical on why )

TCLynx would probably be able to give you an exact ml per L

I just put the urea granules on the bed (in solid form) near the where the water come in. It dissolves slowly.

I cant create enough humonia

You mean you don't want to destroy the fishies liver with second hand alcohol poisoning....

second hand alcohol poisoning, LOL Its worse that second hand smoke *bad image flash through mind*

Hmmm, beer flavoured Trout

Oh wait, second hand beer flavoured Trout