Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Can someone help me! I am a newbie in Hawaii trying to develop a AP system. I have set up a simple continuous flow system. I have a 50 gallon fish tank with 2 growbeds in a step set up. The water is pumped up to the top growbed and drains down to the second bed and back to the fish tank.

I am using gravel for media with a shallow grow bed (6 inches), pH is 7, no ammonia or nitrate. I have 8 tilapia about 3 inches long. THe water is very green with algae. I also have a huge population of amphipods in the grow beds.

Right now I cannot grow lettuce but tomatos grow like mad. I have basil that went to flower quite quickly. Nothing seems to grow properly.

I have tried upping the feed and covering the fish tub. I still am having diificulty growing things. Any ideas?

Welcome (lucky) Hawaiian!

How long has this system been running? Is it cycled (both kinds of bacteria working)?

Its been cycling for 3 weeks. I think that is my problem, I have no bacteria. I started without any type of medium and put plants in right away. Then I did the reserach and found out I need a medium and I need to cycle it for a month.

Anyway it has had gravel for 3 weeks now.

Thanks for the help!

Do you have access to a natural stream? If so, you can go get a bucket of silt and detrietus from the bottom of the creek (not mud, but the stuff that settles between the rocks). Add that to your system, it will have some of the bacteria, and may help jumpstart your system.

You could also use a bottle of bacteria from the pet store, or squeeze an existing aquarium's filter pad to get the good stuff from it. Or just wait, there are bound to be these kinds of bacteria in the gravel and they might just need more time. It took my system last Summer about a month to cycle. Test kits will tell you, first ammonia, then nitrites go up then down, then you have nitrates available for plants.

There is no filter for my fish tub. Thanks for the help, maybe I need to just be more patient. Ack the P word. I want lettuce now!

Thanks!

Whatever the problem HNB you are idefinately n the right state. It is said that AP idea all started in Hawaii at Windward Community College with the "Backyard Aquaculture in Hawaii" manual by Dr. Jim Szyper. The University of Hawaii does extensive tomato genetic research too.....

HN, keep at it, don't feed your fish too much while you get the bacteria established. Plants- you will have to be patient. Read the useful info dection here, plenty of tech stuff

Thanks Guys. I did read the useful section. I spent hours and hours reading all your guys' post and info. I wish I found this site before I started. Haha! I am going to also start a second system the "right way" now that I am educated a bit more.

Thanks again for the help.

One more question. Are the amphipods (little water fleas or shrimps) harmful to the system?

Amphipods sound like tilapia-food to me. I wouldn't worry about them at all.

Sometimes a little hydoonic trace elements, or iron chelate may help the lettuce.

Free food!

Is the temp / daylight right for the lettuce?

bolting to seed (flower) (basil) is a sign of too warm or too much light hours, isn't it?

The grow beds don't get too much light. The temp gets to be between 78 to 85. (Hawaii weather). I thought the basil was bolting to seed cause it thought it was dying so it made seeds. I dunno....

Lettuce does like cooler weather. Here it is a spring/fall crop, not summer. Your weather may be a touch warm for lettuce, but given that the bed is shady, it should be OK. I don't know why the basil would bolt. It should like those temps.

Your bed is still very young. Mine has been running since November. I am also having problems with lettuce and spinach. Snow peas are doing great. My system doesn't have a lot of trace nutrients yet, and that might be the bigger problem for you, too. I added a few handfuls of greensand and some of my plants have started putting out new leaves. Suddenly the bok choy and radishes are putting out an effort. The lettuce and spinach is still not doing so well, but I think I also need to be patient. (Sigh, the 'p' word.)