Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Jen
You are growing goldies, think someone on the forum has eaten them but I would have to be desperate to. Currently are your plants suffering? 0-0-0 could be in balance
Also summer looks like it is upon us, adding more fish might not be wise.

If you really want to do it, get a bucket put in some water, weigh it, put in a fish, weigh it. The you just guess the rest

silly me.. why didn't I think of that? of course I'll do that.. on the weekend too dark now and I'm working full day shift tomorrow.

And why shouldn't i add more goldies in summer? They seem fine to me at the moment

Water temps up, goldies metabolism will increase, the will want more food and will excrete more ammonia and use up more DO. Ammonia at higher temps becomes more dangerous and waters ability to hold DO decreases.

I think he is saying "don't overdo it", especially when extreme weather can cause shocks. I would think that 10% increase in fish feeding per week would be easily handled by bacterial increase, probably 30%: it all depends on how fast the nitrite>nitrate bacteria (sorry not to recall their name ) increase. I think doubling time is about 1 to 3 days, so in theory one could double the fish every 1 to 3 days: safer to stay well under and/or test.

hmm I was thinking about adding fish coz there ARE some plants that just aren't growing well.. I was just thinking lack of nitrates? but then there is some reasonable shade on some of them. The Strawberry plant is showing rust on the edge of the leaves so I'm kinda confused... I have not added anything other than sprayed all the plants with Dipel. wtf?

Possibly high humidity not enough air movement, mind a lot of people have problems with strawbs. If you want to try an expriment (an take one for the team ) Remove worst leaves and mulch underneath with cut open nylon scrubbing pads (the really coarse open ones.
Try a tiny bit of seasol in the header water, won't hurt and maybe sort any micro nute deficiencies.

hmmm... I have seasol but I only use them on dirt plants... I feel like I'm duping the whole aquaponics concept if I add seasol ... what's the point of AP if you have to use additives?

Jen

You are already feeding the fish, that's where your primary input to the system comes from, in an ideal biosystem there would be no additives.
Quite honestly many fish foods are crap

If you have high stocking densities, using high quality food, the need for additives is greatly reduced.

However at some point (usually during a peak flowering / fruiting period) the system will run out of some elements. Usually Iron and Potassium. Seasol has both of these Fish food does not have lots.

What OBO said, I tend to be a bit short at times

What's the point of having a soil garden... if you have to use additives....??

Actually ... what's the point of having a soil garden.... if you can have an AP system....

there are some plants that just cant stand the amount of water movement that AP provides.... granted that all I have to do is create a AP system with a slower movement but that is long time in coming... god I sound like a whiner...

and besides... I'm "minimising" the use of chemicals or additives. I want to be able to run it without having to keep adding things to it. I mean with soil garden, you have lime to break up clay, mulch to make it more organic and for protection, some repellents for keeping pests away and etc... I was kinda unhappy having to use Dipel. I mean some of those additives are kinda costly... not expensive, just comes with a cost. Having a AP system without having to pay so much...

I'm kinda going with that coz my dad keeps arguing that I'm spending too much money on the AP and too much time fiddling around. I managed to stop buying about 2 weeks ago as the system is kinda complete (apart from the fish, I still don't think I got enough) and I stopped fiddling around on Xmas day when I managed to get the flow-rates correct for all the 5 beds . there has to be an easier way of getting the water to the Growbeds and back!

The more mature a system gets the better it runs.

"apart from the fish, I still don't think I got enough"

Stop spying on them and put something in for babies to hide. Goldfish breed like rabbits