Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have been using your guide to establish a pilot project over here to see if it is worthwhile introducing. At the moment I have a 4 bed flood and drain system operating.

The seedlings are twelve days old now but have only achieved a height of 9 cm and seem to have stalled. Can you provide any advice on this.

I haven't actually innoculated the beds. Could this be the problem. Is there something organic I can use or what are your suggestions for simulating growth?

G'day Steve M,

The system will take some time to come into balance when it's initially set up. Firstly a couple of questions if you don't mind.

Has your fish water had an algal bloom?

How many or better still, do you have any idea what weight of fish is in the system (assuming you have added fish)?

Without innoculating the beds with bacteria you can expect to wait almost three months for the bacteria to build up a decent population in the system. During this period your system will be extremely dissapointing with thick algal blooms in your water and very little in the way of plant growth.

You can hurry the plant growth along by adding a little fish emulsion and seaweed emulsion, but this will ultimately only add to the algal bloom problems.

So without an innocultation of bacteria, you have to be patient. I have found that when bacteria is added to a system the system will generally clear up and come into balance within 2-3 weeks instead of 2-3 months..

You can create a bacteria colony in a new system without adding the fish, this is done by adding clear ammonia to the running system, about a cup a week for a couple of months should get the bacteria going. It's only once the bacteria has built up in a system that your plants are going to grow because at the moment all they have is ammonia from the fish..

Hope this helps a little Steve, sorry I can't give you any quick fix answer apart from being patient..

Joel