Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey AP world just seeking some advice on why my veges keep dying? My system is only 2 months old and everytime I plant new veges they die within 2 weeks. I have added chelated iron, and seasol as per recommended on several other posts throughout this forum. I have also checked that the roots are getting water when I plant them in the GB.

My system is 1500lt FT 1/3 filled with one 500lt GB. As i get more GB's i will fill the FT up more. I have 10 rainbow trout about 8-10 cm which i added this week after my system had cycled. Ph is 7.4, Ammonia is 0.25, Nitrite has spiked since adding the fish and is 4ppm, Nitrate is 40ppm and water temp is average 16*c. I added 500g of salt to try to bring the nitrite down. Hasn't come down yet.

cheers,
Willow

The only reason I can imagine is that your water levels too low in the growbed and the new seedlings aren't able to access the water? A lot of plants go through shock usually lasts a week they loose a few leaves, but they don't die for no reason.

Yeah cheers Wildfire, i think you could be right. i'll dig them in a bit deeper and see how we go over the next week or so.

thanks

other thing you could look at is extending your standpipe to raise the level of the water, don't want to waste your filtration/media

I don't think salt will bring the nitrite down but it will help your fish in regards to nitrite levels.

Are you sure you only put 500 grams in?

yeah i put only 500grams of salt in.... what do you think might bring the nitrite levels back down?

fish have an internal salt concentration, adding salt to your FT reduces the tranfer (osmosis) from fish to water which in turn helps them save valuable energy to fight against disease and parasitic issues which are usually due to stress

salt will not bring nitrite down , it will only mitigate the effects

thanks Charlie....do you know what I can do to bring the nitrite down?

cheers,
Willow

Patience. Let your system continue to cycle. Reduce/minimise feed until it has fully cycled.

thanks arbe patience it is

Looking at the picture...looks like the water is spraying directly onto the plant...have you got any picks of the dead plants?

hey vlt dont have any pic of the dead plants but the water has been directly flowing onto some of the plants. Could that effect the health of them?

Any more info/sources of info on this charlie? Sounds interesting!

I sourced this info from Edition 12 page 9 of the BYAP magazine, its about salt tolerant plants but there is some info (mainly aimed at barra and trout) and the transfer of there internal salt content to the Ft which burns energy, if you salt your FT it reduces the transfer in turn saving energy which then can be better used to fight against disease.

Most of the knowledge I source if from BYAP in one form or another, lets face it, they have done all the hard yards over the years.

I have the same problem. Initially I had my small system inside the house. Cucumbers started really well and strawberries. When the strawberries started fruiting, all the leaves started to die. I assumed I had the wrong spectrum for vegetation so I moved it outside. then after moving outside, everything started dying. The cucumber leaves lost their green and they're partially yellow. the strawberries are dead. I can see a few problems: my water level is not high enough. I have high level of nitrite and nitrate. ph level i believe is above 7.0 last time i checked.