Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

One more... I already have a little helper

Here a few pics of my system. It is going pretty good. However, the plants are growing slower than I would have hoped. Also, the lettuce and other greens seem really limp and a bit yellow. I have read some on here and think it is iron. I am going to go to an aquarium store to see if I can get some iron supplement. comments and feedback are welcome.

Thanks for all your help so far.

Richard

Looks good. Yates makes Chelated Iron that a lot of AP'ers use.

Lack of light by the looks of the photo's

Light...I have 4 110watt VHO lights sitting about 3 foot from the plants. Do you all think that I should move the lights closer to the plants? I was talking to some of my organic gardening friends with a greenhouse and they said the if the plants look "leggly" they need more light. Not sure exactly what leggy means, but I think I have leggy plants.

They do seem to be reaching. As long as the lights don't burn the plants move them a little closer and see if that makes a difference. I've seem fluros with the plants trying to grow around the globes.

Never tried VHO's but T5's about 4" from plants. A Dufflight said as close as possible without burning, just stick your hand underneath. Could also be colour spectrum, high K's compact growth warmer, bit leggy. Would have thought VHO's would be high K's but as I said never used them.

I have one bulb like this...
product description



URI 46.5 INCH VERY HIGH OUTPUT (VHO) ACTINIC WHITE BULB - 110 Watt Actinic white is the first of its kind to offer a 50/50 combination on triband and actinic phosphors. 180° internal reflector allows 40% more light output. Actinic White is a high performance upgrade, great for coral, live rock, and related marine life. Actinic White (12000K) = 50% actinic 03 blue phosphors & 50% white spectrum(triband). High performance upgrade which are great for corals, live rock, and related marine life.

two bulbs like this

Super Actinic R The Super Actinic R is a lamp which is an excellent source of long wave ultraviolet radiation. peaking precisely at 420NM closely resembles that of the blue chlorophyll absorption peak utilized in photosynthesis. It's benefits at 7100 Kelvin help enhance the fluorescent colors of Fish and Invertebrates.

and one like this...

Ultraviolet Resources' VHO lamps feature 180 degree internal reflectors to direct light down into your tank, providing up to 70% more light. This is a daylight temperature lamp at 10,000K and is ideal for fish only, planted and freshwater applications.

I moved the bulbs about 16inches from the plants. I hope this helps.

Thanks

Most seem to have the leaves almost touching the globes.

So the plants are doing about the same but I have had some trouble with the fish. All the fish have died but three. They seem to have some sort of fungus. I have read on here about the salt and have added some salt to a quarantine tank. I hope the three make it. Question is, what do I need to do for the plants while there are no fish in the system?

Check the link to TC's peeponics, also a little foliar feed would help, just make sure it is quite weak (seasol). Make sure you test the water for ammonia and nitrite before you put the fish back in, should be zero.

Seasol in the water, and some urea in the water.

Hi Richard

there nice looking tomatoes..

good luck with the fungus

Thanks for the info. The fish look good tonight and I have placed them back in the holding tank. With only three fish in the 110gallon tank, I think they will be fine. I have some ammonia. Do you all recommend something to take the ammonia out of the water, like ammolock or some other product like that? Not sure if I can get seasol here in the US. But I will look at it tonight online and see what I can find. Have any of you used bat guano in any of your systems. I have that here at the house and could add some to the gbs. It can be used as a foliar feed when made into a tea.

Maxicrop I think is the trick here in the US. You want the stuff that is just seaweed or seaweed and Iron. You do not want the extra Nitrogen that would be in the stuff that has fish emulsion in it unless you are really running fishless long term.

If you are still seeing Ammonia levels in your water then it sounds like you are not cycled yet and the stress from high ammonia and nitrite levels probably caused the fish to get sick. You don't really want to lock up the ammonia, you want to build up the bacteria in your gravel beds to convert ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate for the plants. Balancing act here since you need a certain amount of those things before the bacteria colony starts growing but too much of those things for too long will stress or even kill the fish. (with fish in the system) Once your Nitrate readings come up while the Ammonia and Nitrite fall to zero then you should be cycled.

Where are you in all this, where is your original system thread?