Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have a 10 gal. fish tank with 5 thumb size goldfish and one small algae eater. The system consists of a 3' long 2" Dia. P.V.C. pipe hanging above with 5 notches cut along the length for plants and a standard nursery flat angled down to the fish tank. " an ebb and flow unit"
I think i'm trying to grow to many different plant types in the same flat but everything but the greens are doing well. The flat consists of "in order of left to right" 3 basil,3thyme,3oregano,3chard,3rosemary,3lettuce mix,and 3arugula.
the thyme,oregano and rosemary were from cuttings everything else from seed.
the basil, arugula and lettuce shot up and then have nearly stopped. starting to turn yellow and some leaves are turning black and seemingly wilting. Im using a Maxicrop seaweed based fertiliser w/iron. though i think these plant are lacking Nitrogen or maybe even potassium...But i don't know...Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter? I am poor and can't afford to keep buying supplements until i get it right. Tkanks

Hi Julianblue

Have your plants been planted to deeply? Symptoms sound like water stress. Also, leafy greens dont have a high potassium requirement (wood ash is a good source of pottasium)
Are you feeding with a quality fish food?

VSS (very small systems) with only a few small fish can be a difficult juggling act. How old is the system, and as mentioned feed is important.

What are the PH and nutrient readings? The wilting and turning black sounds like water logged roots to me as well. How often does it flood and drain? What is the media? You might not need any supplements if you get good food.

ya potassium is more.... things go yellow on oldest growth and become more brittle then tips working inwards go brown/crunchy and and dead kinda patchy like... then slowly spreads to upper plant.. as lower leaves die off.. i would say watter logged as well... if they look wilty all the time def water logged.. could be nitrogen deficiency but need to know PH and test results for anything more than a crapshoot. Also would need to know more about build... how deep are your growbeds how high the water floods in relation to how much media you have.. (i like to have 1 - 2 inches of dry gravel on top when fully flooded) Media type ect...

I'm sorry, I was thinking of changing my system to ebb and flow but i have a constant water flow through a nursery flat full clay pebbles. Above that are twelve of the little six packs you buy plant starters in. Going every other one i placed the little rock-wool mineral fiber plugs. I just don't see how they could be water logged because the only thing that's even reached the clay pebbles is the chard and since i took the plastic dome off the flat to sprout some seeds in another flat, the rock-wool has nearly dried out. Not dried out but definitely not saturated. The p.h. was around 7.2 a few days ago and i was told that may be a bit high. I dilute a half table spoon of white vinegar with a gal. of water and topped off the tank. That brought the p.h. down to around 6.4. that was four days ago. I just tested the water five min. ago and the p.h. is around 6.6. I am feeding my fish with Omega One, i have flakes and pellets. The system is only around two and a half months old and i may not have the proper bacteria built up but is there anything i can do to help the plants along until then?

Add a bit of Maxicrop every now and then... or even better "Maxicrop+Iron"...

Any chance of some Pics julianblue. Both of the system and the ailing plants?