Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I would agree on lack of N. According to my notes you need about 20g to 90g of fish food per square meter of fully planted growbed. So, if you are feeding 2g per day (about 100g to 200g of fish in tank?) you can (maybe) support about a square foot of plants.

Some folks have good growth with nitrates at zero, but how can you tell if the plants need more? It is far better to have leftover nitrates (at least 10ppm) so that you know the plants get all they need. I see three possibilities: add fish, subtract plants, or add fertilizer.

The last one is the least safe. I've used some stuff that contains blood meal (Sea Grow All Purpose 16-16-16) and it did not seem to harm tilapia, catfish, or goldfish. Haven't had to use any this year as that system is more mature and has more fish.

i agree hydro,
with a organic process, the plants will only take up what they need, when they need it(unless in nutrient or pH lock up), which in AP should not happen(unless the pH it to high or low) that why we do AP no chance of nutrient burn.

i think the photo cycle change will solve any problem you may have. in my head, the lack of hours it preventing photosynthesis from metabolizing nutrient up take. so the plants are unable to have vigorous green growth for vegetative stage.
so i think you fixed your problem. keep us posted...
-df
PS, yea i had to spell check...

Hey guys,

So I did a test period of 24 hrs of light for my plants while I was gone for the last 3 days with no noticeable jump in growth. In fact I started getting more arugula leaves looking like the photo I posted a couple of posts back. Dank, you had said that this may be caused by either not enough light (doesn't look like it), or too much water, so I have cut back my pump at night to run every other hour for about 6 hrs, and the rest of the day its on every hour. We'll see if that helps. Also, what kind of bulb do you have in your lights right now?

My spinach doesn't seem to be getting any worse, and may actually be greening up which would be good.

I have put in the additional 2 goldies that I had in reserve and have upped the feeding a bit as well in hopes to raise those Nitrate levels, which still read as 0. I will probably go get a few more fish if the levels remain the same by the end of this week. Gonna keep the lights on as long as possible each day as well.

from my under standing of plants and photo peroid, is that they going into shock if they dont like the amount of light, so it may take some time...

guide to growing arugula:
http://www.heirloom-organics.com/guide/ ... ugula.html

i hope that helps. it says that it grows slow untill the heat makes it bolt.

So is there such a thing as over feeding fish, or will they just stop when they are full? I just fed my fish a bunch of food(3 pinches) and they muched it all up and could probably eat more! Kinda fun to watch. Just want to make sure i can't hurt 'em with too much food.

Never mind... answered my own fish feeding question from a simple google search.. Turns out you can over feed them and they will eat till they die. Good thing for the internet!

yea just feed the amount they can eat in like one min or so.

Hunh....I always fed until they would eat no more, but perhaps with tilapia it varies with variety.

You are using growlight bulbs, not standard cool or warm white or daylight? Even daylight bulbs are only supposed to look like daylight to our eyes, not to chloroplasts.

tookairr, i am useing a 2 buld 4 foot T-8 with 6500K bulbs. there not grow bulbs, just 6500k. im getting good growth rates. umm...im stumpt.



viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7270&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

i am updateing it when i get home tonight...last night i took out all of the gravel in my 30g ap to lighten the load with hydrotron. pics to come, i got one of my light for ya.

i think we use the same fixgure, i think you have twice the light too...it might be the bulbs...get 6500k bulbs ...yea grow bulbs would be better...but not for the price...

and why not get some white plastic(painters plastic) and make a little tent. so the light wont bother you. better nappy time

I am using 2 different types of bulbs, in my newbie attempt to provide multiple spectrums I have two 6500K and two 4100K.

Just got my new timer in the mail today and it seems to be pretty sweet! All digital with timing to the minuet, 20 on/offs per day. When I tell it to be on for 15 mins, its on for 15 mins! What a concept! I have it set up to be on for 15 mins every hour except for 4 where it runs every other hour. I'm pretty stoked about the whole thing!



Got one sick goldie right now, but I have him isolated with salt and good water and a bit of food and he has been improving over the past 36 hours. The rest of the goldies are looking great, and getting bigger!

looking great!!
any improvement on the plant side?

Not yet.... I'm still hopeful though!

darn, the only real differences i can find between are two systems: lights, amount of media, and mine has been cycleing for a wilenow.

yours is better then my 30g system becuase you have WAY more media then me, witch is a great thing.

time will tell tho
all will be good soon

Not a whole lot to report here. Plant growth is still poor, and I have started pulling plants. Levels still look good minus the lack of extra Nitrates. PH is 7.8-8 and fish are looking really healthy and are growing. I managed to pull one fish back from near death in another tank with 4ppt salt. I was pretty stoked about that!

Some of my arugula is getting gray, brittle leaves and I read somewhere in the forum that someone attributed this to potassium deficiency. So today I put pieces of Banana peals under my input piping in the GB. We'll see if that helps.

I got my Salinity Refractometer in the mail a while back, but hadn't had a chance to use it until today. Got a reading of about 3ppt in the FT, may do a water change here soon to try and bring that down just a tad, but the fish seem to be doing fine and it's probably not hurting them.

On other fronts, started a worm composter which I am very excited about. Just got 2000 Red Wigglers and introduced them into their veggie filled bin this afternoon. Also put a few into the GB. I'm excited to be making lovely fertilizer and growing more creatures!

Hope all is well out there in the world!

Looking good, nice clear water, happy fish. I kept one system at 3ppt to 6ppt salt all last summer to deal with ich. The plants did not like 6ppt, but seemed fine with 3. Some plants, like strawberries, don't like salt at all.