Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am running 15 on and 45 off.
Sometimes I run continuosly for a couple of hours in the evening.

I have only 200ltr of growbeds and 2000ltr of fish tanks, so I try and run the pumps
for a few hours each night just to increase the filtration.
All the tests are good though.

PH: 6.8
Amm: 0
rites: 0
rates: 50
Temp around 27c

Seasol and chelated iron??

Yes Ivan I have been adding both every couple weeks.

Try going to 15/30... especially during the hotter days... or where you are... maybe all summer...

I will post some picks tomorrow arvo and that might give better idea on whats going on.
Do you think the plants might be lacking nutrient or getting to hot or both?

Plenty of nutrients there Whispers (nitrates... and some seasol & chelated iron).... and pH is good... think it might be the heat knocking them around...

OK I will change the pumping times and see what happens.

Here are some photo's of the plants.

You can see my makeshift shade cloth which is doing the job at the moment.

How shaded is the location?

The Basil has a fungal disease. I've had it whack a couple of plants over time. nothing seems to sort it out aside from removing the plant to stop the spread. There should be little black spots that are the fungal pustules on the underside of the leaf (from memory).

Not sure about the cucurbit though.

Chatty

Thanks Chatty,
Now that the shadecloth is there the beds are shaded all day.
It is only the side with the capsicum plant gets morning sun and the other side gets a
small amount of afternoon sun.
Do you think the basil is getting to much shade or maybe the shadecloth is to low to
the beds.

The shade should be fine with the basil. I have mine under 70% shade and the basil is going crazy!

If it is a fungi then can it be in the media.
I hope I don't have to clean the grow beds.
Otherwise I guess I am just unlucky and got fungi ( not me the basil )

whisper, chop the basil right back to the first set of leaves on each stem and see if that helps. A couple of harvests ago, mine looked similar to the pic above so i hacked at it, used it for some pasta, and dried the rest for winter herbs. they then went crazy again and look really healthy. I'll go get a pic now before it gets too dark.

quachy

here we go...

[edit] as mentioned earlier, my basil is under 70% shade cloth and doing fine. I cut them back once a week now so that they don't get too crazy and go to seed. I will let some go to seed late summer into autumn to seed save but for now cut and dry for winter.