Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Any reason for the 45/15 flood and drain... normally we have that reversed... 15/45...

Could be things are too wet...

Yeah sorry wrong way round. It is definately 15 flood 45 drain.

Have you ever dossed the system with seasol or sea salt? Looks like it could be a bit of potassium deficiency maybe on the parsley. The peas, well they don't like hot weather and I've seen pea plants start looking like that as the weather starts getting too warm for them.

If you want to test to see if the plants are actually drying out. Wait till the 45 minute drain time is almost over and dig down into the media. If the media is really dry down in the bed, then perhaps for the hot weather, you might have to do 15 flood and only 30 drain. However, I doubt you will find that the media has dried out down below in only 45 minutes except on the driest hottest days of the year.

TCLynx,
I have and do add seasol and iron on a regular basis.
Seasol every 2 weeks and iron every 4 weeks just a little.

I have really only noticed the problems since adding the IBC.
I have also increased the amount of flow through the grow beds.
Is it possible that I am flooding too high and the stems are rotting.
When I look at the part under the rocks they are black not sure if this is normal.

Any suggestions? I don't really want the plants to die.

Test results at 1.30pm today.

PH: 7.4
Temp: 23C
Amm: .25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10

Due to the fact that I think I am going to lose my peas I decided to eat the small pods.
They were very tasty and sweet, now I am really anoyed that for some reason everything in my system wants to die !!!!!!

Hmm... yeah it does seem weird to have things keep dying... Noticed that your system is close to a fence, are you on good terms with the neighbour on the other side of the fence?? Foul-play??

Yeah all good with the neighbors.
No one has lived there for the last 5 weeks.

Must be something else going on.

Looking at the second photo of the peas ... to me ... it definitely looks as though the stem has basically split, almost completely... due to collar rot...

I'd say you've been flooding to high...

I guess that means that those plants are stuffed and I should rip them out.

Also my flood levels are about 25mm from the top of media.
If the plants are rotting does this mean I have planted them to low in the media?

I'd turf them and start again... regardless of cause...

OK so I have planted some more seedlings
See how these ones go.
I have put in some more peas and also some watermelon.
The kids really love watermelon, would be great the grow some.
I have lowered the flood level slightly and also plante a little higher.

I have left the strawberries and parsley although they both look sick.
Will probably end up replacing them too this week.

Hopefully it was only something simple like that causing the rotting stems.

Test result from lunch time today.

Temp: 22c
Amm: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 30
PH: 7.4

All looking good with the results. Water is a little green but fish and new plants looking
good so far.
Now all I need to do is wait for some silver perch and BYAP grow beds(hopefully soon).

WooooHoooo
Managed to get my hand on some silver perch today.
I have 50 ranging from 20mm to 75mm.
Settled them in this afternoon now for the long night to hope they are all still alive
in the morning.
I have them in the sump at the moment because I have 2 larger Koi in the main tank.
I think the Koi may eat the smaller ones!
I also have two more IBC's one fish tank which I am hoping to have plumbed up tomorrow.
So I will have two IBC's joined together as fish tanks and I will be cutting the other one in half to use as sumps under my BYAP grow beds when they arrive.
I am hoping to hook up one of the sumps ASAP and run it with gravel as extra filtration
until the new grow beds are running.
Lucky the silvers don't grow to fast otherwise I would be in huge trouble.

2 IBC's plumbed together today.
All silvers still alive
I got a small amount of food with the fish but I will need some more very soon.
I was told I should feed 45 to 50% protien for a few weeks and then drop it back to 35%.
What food would you guys recommend for the higher protien levels?