Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

how it is turning yellow is the imkportant bit. if it is going from the fleshy part to the veins than that is most likely iron defieciancy which is the one thing most fish foods (and thus poo) have very little of. IT has been common in a few peoples system ans with the addition of iron chelate( available from garden centres in powder form) will solve itself quite nicely. If the whole plant is yellow that is different and someone else will comee up with that answer but I think jamie is on the right track. More nutrients of all forms

You can plant out into AP much the same way as dirt gardening, if the plant is small/hardy enough to transplant and you have a large enough growbed, you should be able to be successful with any size plant.

In practice, most APers either sow seed or place cuttings directly into their AP systems or plant out seedlings (after washing away all of the soil from around the roots).

so, I've tried striking bean and strawberry seeds in my vermiculite bed recently. No strike. Are there any secrets?

Are beans like peas where they don't like being wet before they germinate? Maybe that's the issue. As for the strawbs, I have never grown them from seed so no help to ya!

I threw in bean seeds and they all germinated, a couple were perpetually wet (under the GB flow) and up they come as well - getting lovely sized beans off them at present - they do like lots of nutes in the water

The seeds were deliberately placed under the water as an experiment - which worked

scrap my thought then!

just drop in a suitable UV clarification lighting and you will be right...

daphnia will clear up green water very nicely, and provide a nutritious yummo snack for smaller fishies

all u have to do is find some daphnia, get a ice cream tub and cut out the bottom and sides, leaving a plastic 'basket', get some pantyhose and put the tub into the pantyhose so it creates an ice cream tub/pantyhose net

float the ice cream tub in the water with some styrofoam (or whatever u have that floats) and put the daphnia into the net so fish cannot eat them

the daphnia will go abouts doing their thang filtering the suspended algae
out of the water, and after a little while the water should be cleared of the pea soup

instead of the DIY homejob, u can also use those mesh live bearer breeding nets that hang off the sides of fishtanks, same thing more $$$

a little trick i use on fishtanks and the outdoor pond hope it helps

mmmmmm, daphnia.........i think biofarmer thought i was joking when i asked him to send me some GC, can you buy live daphnia or do you have to go searching rivers and creeks for them (not my forte)

i DID have a good daphnia culture going for a few years, but the tub sprung a leak while i was at uni a month ago and it died... unfortunately my mom tipped the black gunk out of the bottom into the garden so all the epphia are gone too...

i have never ever ever seen live daphnia for sale anywhere! asked around like crazy at ever aquarium i could find a few years back and nobody ever gets the stuff...

i knew of one guy a few years back in rosebud vic who did apprantly sell the cultures, and mailed them in the cooler weather, duno if he still does tho! think he owned the aquarium there in rosebud, maybe worth checkin out if you are desperate!

i will be starting another daphnia culture when the weather cools down in a few months, and will be going down to the botanical gardens in warrnambool to get my starter (go to uni there, plus have had no luck finding daphnia in ponds etc in melbourne), the pond in there is home to many ducks and the manure produces a lot of daphnia in the cooler months (in summer the lillees take over the pond and the daphnia dissapear)

oh and i forgot to mention in my previous post - you should acclimitise the daphnia to the tank as you would fish, otherwise u run the risk of killing the little buggers with shock!

Bother! I was REALLY counting on your reply being "Sure! I have a culture here, come get some!" Do ya reckon they'd survive an express post trip in this weather? Bio farmer............please please please please please?

yep i reckon they will do ok, but i think express post would be necessary!

the only thing i would worry about is the temp being too high when they are in transit, so bubblewrap and insulation would be highly recommended i think!! i think if u got a 600ml coke bottle, 2/3 filled with the starter culture, and the other 1/3 reserved for oxygen, bubble wrap it like crazy and sent it express it should be ok

if all else fails maybe a starter culture with the gunk on the bottom of established cultures will be useful, hopefully there will be plenty of epphia in the gunk to get a culture started

steve i just haven't got around to sending yet. i will get some out to you asap via express post.

the idea's gravychic mentioned sound like the way to go. i will attempt to get it out tomorrow. we might be better off waiting until after xmas as it might be a quicker transit. i will give it a go though. they seem like hardy creatures so think they will be fine.

i have to mention though that there are a couple of unidentified species in the water. i am still in the process of evaluating the biology in my system. i may need to start fresh if there are pests/ parasites/ diseases that negatively impact of the health of my target species.

i will let you know when there out.

Thanks heaps BF, will recompense you some way.

Un identifieds are cool, as i have a 100lt tank set up (one of three) indoors, will put a heap of green water in there and breed them there.

Express should be next day regardless of season as long as you're in the delivery network. Will share with gravychic when it arives.

Steve