Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If i dont have enough fish to provide for the plants, can i add some seasol or something?

I only have a small 44G drum setup with about 25 goldfish.
I have planted it full of plants now, and have realised i probably dont have enough fish.. as a short term fix due to locality can i add a little liquid fertiliser? and if so, what sort?

Cheers

Hi stangas

How much media do you have in litres? For a small system like that I would think 25 goldfish would be fine. Do you have a test kit? If so what are your parameters?

Seasol is good for trace elements and will be good for your system.

Im guessing your not getting the growth you are hoping for but could be a multiple of reasons like age of the system, how much light you have, type of feed you are using etc

p.s. never use fertilisers in AP

You can certainly add Seasol seaweed extract, just use the rate recommended on the bottle and pour over the plants, allowing it to run into the root zone. Do not apply in the heat of the day.
Like Charlie says, I think 25 goldfish should do okay. Is the system newish becasue it does take time?

i have 200L of media bed, with 200L fish tank, and another 50L overhead (flood drain). (The blue barrel download)

The thing is i moved house recently and just now moved the system, the plants i stopped growing some time ago and just kept the fish alive... i have now planted 8 strawberry, 2 chilli, 2 capsicum and 1 tomato.

I do have the testing kit.. i should sit down and do the readings.
any chance of a heads up on targets..

Pre planning for emergency situations..

Yea I would stick with the 25 goldies for now mate. Bit of seasol and patients too

cheers mate

Make sure the feed you are giving the goldfish is 40% protein as well. I feed my goldies skrettings pellets and they love it.

checked my food, and it is only 35% protein.. is that too far out the ball park?

took some readings just now too..

pH: 7.6
Nitrate: 0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0

little high pH but should be ok?
does that indicate that the plants are dragging all nutrients out of the water?
ammonia is seasol, so small amount should render a change?

35% will be fine stangas.

PH is ok, it will drop in time in most situations.

Make sure you give all your test bottles (especially nitrate) a really good shake (about a minute) before you test. But assuming you have done so, you are either completely cycled and your plants are taking up the available nitrates -or- you may not have started to cylce yet, how old is the system now?

Seasol is basically just a seaweed extract with trace elements good for plant health, put a capful in once a month.

cheers charlie..

the system is about 18 months old, but has not had any plants in it for quite a while (3 months)
we have built a new house, and just moved in, so i kept the fish alive only.

I got it here.. refilled the tanks with tap water, put the goldies in and let it cycle for 2 days. Then planted the plants from the punnets.

The fish seem happy and are quite fat.
The plants are very healthy with no signs of badness. But what are signs of not enough nitrates?

I think it is going to be fine.

Ok cool, if you didnt change the media it would still be home to all the benificial bacteria so there is a good chance it just kicked right off again. If your plants and fish are happy - your good to go