Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Damian

Damn, that's a lot of effort you went to there to get bad lettuce I feel for you.

I believe micro-nutrients were indeed a large part of your systems problems and am glad to see you've got on top of this.

Root-rot - Pythium, is a mongrel. It is also systemic, meaning, all through your system. Cleaning the system entirely might remove it but given the right conditions it will arrive again.

Getting your pH down to at least 7, I prefer 6.6 - 6.8 especially when in summer conditions (ie your place!) will help a great deal.

A friend did an experiment with a tomato, deliberately giving it pythium by - raising the temperature. He then put the diseased tomato in his AP system (my DWC design) and the pythium got eaten by the bacteria, and the tomato eventually flourished.

you won't like what I say next.

I never got any success out of nft. It might be that I'm crap at nft, but after trying so hard for so long all I got was substandard growth and root rot. I believe the problem is this....

Mediumless systems have no immediate bacteria concentrations for the plants. Planting in cycled AP medium means michorhizal fungi and other root zone gaurdians are present immediately upon placing your plants in system. When you dangle roots in the air down to the solution your young susceptible plants are 'out in the cold' (out in the hot) with no protection.

Gases in system are given plenty of breathing room in those pipes, and not much chance of escape (carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide). These too will create bad conditions for plant growth.

I recommend you add a degassing unit. So it goes

Pond - filter - degassing - plants.

A degassing unit is as simple as a barrel that is highly oxygenated, and able to breathe. The water flows from the solids filter into the barrel, bubblers push the gases out of the water solution and add oxygen (pythium loves anaerobic spots). The degassed and heavily aerated water then goes to your nft. Best of luck, I'll try keep track of things if I miss the thread updates (so many threads) just pm me to come see what's happening.

Hi Damian and Aquaddict I have had some success with nift I use filtered water [ on the way back from the grow bed] with an air stone in it

Hey F & F, since I have been out of the loop this is the first time I have seen your system, Wow, sure looks good.

F&F, from my experience, IMHO, the airstones are why you are winning. I have dimantled my NFT rafts, I had no luck with them

Yes that airstone and the prefilter = solids filtration plus degassing, that's the only way nft works in AP to my knowledge.

Beautiful work F&F!

Me too but sooner or later i will get it going.



Are you running one of these systems now?



when you say this do you mean like in the same area as the roots



We wouldn't want that with all those diseases out there!! So i take it the root zone guardians are not water borne. hummmm wouldn't they attach them self directly to the root of the plants then?



carbon dioxide etc are every where even the air to the bubblers would have Co2 in it. A small hole (3mm) next to each plant site should let out any harmful gases that build up in there.

I believe i found the problem with the root rot . the pipes aren't exactly level and there are places where the water is touching the collars around the plants these plants are not growing as fast as the ones where there is a inch between the water surface and the plant collar.

what's your take on this???

those dam snail multiply too fast i don't want them in the system i will get the sucker fish and rig up something that he cant go trough the drain. I just got to do research on breeding them.

As for peroxide that was from my hydro days i decided its not in my best interest to use chems in my system any more.

Hi Joyce the full story is im members thread

That tractor looks like it would have been nice and handy.

So i may have been on the money with the high temps / low DO cause of root rot?

Right on the money Steve.

It's great news that F&F has had success with the bubbler/airstone for nft, that's a lot easier than rigging up a tank or barrel to go pre-nft. Anything makes it simpler and cheaper gets my vote.

Damian - yes I'm running a DWC system at the moment. It's over 4 years old and has produced consistently for 3 1/2 once I stopped removing solids. I just made all the 'nefarious' plants dissapear though so there's only a couple of new wee chillies in there waiting for the roots to take. I can show you some photos but didn't think it appropriate to have cannabis shots on this site. No worries on legalities though, there is nothing dubious to be found anymore hehe.

Root zone gaurdians will travel in water but they take a while. In a medium bed the biofilm covers everything and within this is contained all sorts of goodies. Plants planted in the medium get the benefits of mature bio-film almost immediately. Root systems dangling down must develop their own bio-film, this takes time.

The wet 'pucks' is definately a problem. I had the same, if they were wet they grew thick green algae and got root rot underneath.

Yes, you're right of course, CO2 is everywhere, but it's the percentage. It'll kill humans.... gas exchange is easier than I thought, more props to F&F!

I thought the peroxide came from hydro learning, great for cleaning everything at start-up but in a perpetual and organic system like AP it's not worth the risk.

Are the pipes full of water? I thought it was a slow flow down the base of the pipe....

If they're full of water, oxygenate!

just and up date off whats going on around the place

notice every thing has a bad case off root rot and the bio-filter pipe is blocked and the water smells funny but the plants look good for now

a dead bird was found in the system this is what had the pipes blocked and the water smelling funny. talk about adding nutes!!!!!!

that was about a week ago.

I have to cover the thing with a green house for sure.

The plants are once more growing and the root rot is disappearing.

Also i is find my self eating the young leaves, and they are surprisingly sweet!!!!!

seems like a reasonable explanation CG! Eeeww! that stink!

i used to find a bird flaoting in the system every now and then, not for ages though. It worried me as i pictured a bird taking a leasurly drink and then instantly dying. WTF is in the water!

Or an over ambitious, hungry fish?