Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm just outside of Tampa, Fl and was wondering if there is anyone else in the area with a system. what is the easiest way to supplement plant nutrient needs?

Hay there, welcome.

I'm over in the very NW corner of Orange County near Mount Dora. I've been buying Maxi Crop and Chleated Iron from BWI near Apopka. I've not found a cheap source of chleated Iron and my well water doesn't have much Iron so I need to supplement a fair bit.

I suppose it might be possible to get green sand and sprinkle lots of that through the system and see if that takes care of the potassium and iron needs at least for a time. Some one told me you can get epsoma green sand at lowes or home depot but I've not seen it there myself. I did once get a 35 lb bag of green sand from BWI and use it in my system but apparently it wasn't enough for the amount of system I have so I still need to use the other supplements.

TCLynx,
Thanks for the comments. My system holds about 1000-1200 gallons of water and a single tank with tilapia (150 @ 8"). I also have well water, but have low iron as you have also indicated is your situation.

Would well water in Florida hold enough calcium since we have a limestone based geology?

Could I get away with using Maxicrop product that is already supplemented with iron, rather than adding chleated iron as a second product to purchase?

At what volume should I be dosing my system? There don't seem to be any guidelines for this usage. Has there been anyone whom has already pioneered the path or is it every person for themselves and share what your results were.

I know I've posted several questions, but I guess thats what happens when your new.

If you can get Maxicrop with Iron, that might be a good choice. Check the lable to make sure there are not excess amounts of stuff like copper or zinc but I would probably be buying the maxicrop with iron if BWI carried that.

For my system that had around 1200 gallons of gravel, I had been using a little under a quart of regular maxicrop every few weeks and about a cup of chleated iron powder. I probably could be using it more often.

I have also put about 30 lb of green sand into my grow beds as well.

I took a look around for green sand, but didn't find it locally. A search on the internet suggested that it will cost around a buck a pound in bulk before shipping. I did read something on the aquatic ecosystems web site about using it in filters for removal of Fe and Mg from water. Wouldn't that be counter productive just to get the K in? Take a look and let me know what you think. I think Aquatic Ecosystems is located in Apopka.
Thanks
LJA

Hum, I just sprinkled the green sand in my gravel beds. I don't think I would use it in a separate bio-filter anyway.

I tried to order green sand last year on the internet but the company never shipped it and it took me months to get my money back. I think it has become a bit harder to get this past year since BWI is now only selling smaller bags of it now.

Some folks report good results with burying a few hunks of rusty iron in the growbed, but I'm sure effectiveness will vary.

Hello! I am just off of I-75 in the Bruce B Downs area. Working on getting a pretty nice system going.

obviously i don't know exactly whats in your well water, but I've put in time at a few farms in the bay area and everyone of them were on well water. In each case very little additional calcium was added. A notable exception was a high production vertical hydro system that used calcium nitrate in their second tank.

Hi, my name is Dustin and I too am in the Tampa area (Lutz, FL) looking for others involved with Aquaponics. I started a website called http://www.sideyardaquaponics.com just for fun and to track our progress. We are experiencing many different issues with nutrients and other items so we would be happy to talk through some of it.

Well this thread seems to be full of Florida guys, I'm in Astatula just west of Apopka. I buy most of my aquaculture supplies from Aquatic Eco Systems since I was a friend of Bob it's founder and president. I had my Koi farm just north of Apopka for a number of years. I'm building a aquaponics system at my retirement residence mostly I think to stay busy and stay alive. I have a blog on a guppy site - http://guppydesigner.com/index.php/gues ... -fish-farm

Right now I have 150 bullhead catfish and a 100 Tilapia in a temporary above ground swimming pool as I am just now filling my permanent pool with water. Next I'll build the stream filters. This should be fun. Good to know there are some like minded guys in the central Florida area.

hay Larry,
Actually there is a huge population of active Aquapons in Central Florida. Only a hand full seem to be very active over here on BYAP as there is also an active USA based Aquaponic Gardening social networking type site where a huge number of Floridians have signed up.
I like this site better for in depth learning about aquaponics because the other site is still fairly new and finding answers in it seems confusing to me.

Welcome. There will be an aquaponics conference in Orlando this fall if you are interested
http://aquaponicsassociation.org/

Hey TC,

Thanks for the heads up about the local group. When I had my Koi farm I had a booth each spring over at Holiday Inn International, I still stop in to see the Central Florida Koi show. I let Mother Nature provide my catfish as I sent my son to Little Lake Harris in the middle of April and he brought me back over 200 fry that he netted. I live just 5 blocks from the lake. Yesterday I got my main pool up and running and we moved 207 catfish and 69 Tilapia into it from the temporary swimming pool. All but 3 of the catfish were Brown Bullheads the other 3 were Channel cats, the Bullheads don't eat or grow like the Channels. Among the catfish were a few Bream that I'll keep as population control officers, those Tilapia are eating and breeding machines.

Next week I'll start building the stream grow-out beds, I can see that my style of Aquaponics is quite a bit different that the normal setup. In the past I focused on the fish but now I'll try and balance the setup to do more with the vegetables. When I'm done tinkering I'll post a movie of the thing and send you its address.

I have a new system located in Lakeland. I hope your venture has been successful.