Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So I am new to the whole hydroponics and aquaponics thing. I am in the process of doing research and setting up my initial setup. So in doing my research different plant have different nutrient requirements. In particular how do I control or introduce other nutrients into the system, such as phosphorus. How do I provide different nutrients to different plants or am I limited to certain types of vegetables?

As far as I am aware a good quaility fish food will contain the trace elements that your plants require. Failing that you can add things such as chelated iron or seasol (sea weed extract).

For those interested , I have recently been in contact with the Seasol company to get their (trace and mineral) analysis of Seasol; they said they are updating their studies and results should be available within the next couple of weeks.


Scott

Hi and welcome Yard Dog

I personally believe, you need to add more to get more. As long as it is " fish friendly " like potassium sulfate, iron sulfate, or urea , which are the main additives, you can add in retrospect to the tank volume and amount of fish you might be stocking. Less is more sort of thing.

BUT FIRST the system has to be balanced !!! then adding extra is OK to parameters

I have mostly added directly into the tank water, then you have to watch the water parameter boundaries. Don't go over board. Too much in one go, will cause havoc.

Plants all basically have simular needs so they take up naturally what they need through there roots in a good pH for there survival ( YES it can get complex )as all plants like a differnt pH...... But keep the theory simple, and the system will work.

You can also foliar spray if needed

Why do you think you need to add extra "phosphorus" to an aquaponics system Yarddog....

make it sparkle when the water gushes

Nah Jessy... the sparkle will be when the water gushing disturbs the algael bloom...

I dont know if my 9 cod will eat enough to power plants in 900L of growbeds so am going to make a worm farm to get some worm juice to add to it. Not sure if it will help, but, I got a lot better growth in my big system the first winter when adding worm juice than I did last winter/spring without it, and with bigger fish. Just thoughts

In effect.... because the nutrients in an aquaponics system... are being constantly refreshed... and constantly supplied... to the plants...

The reality is that nutrient supplementation is rarely needed... unless pH issues are preventing nutrient uptake....

The forum has discussed the issues of nutrient lockout many times... and methods of pH adjustment... particularly buffering upward... which provides the opportunity to introduce specific elements, such as calcium and potassium... at stages of plant growth....

Trace lements... are trace elements... and only very small amounts are needed... and irregular intervals....

Seasol contains most of the trace element needs... in a naturally "chelated" form... and the pellet feeds similarly contain a broad range of required trace elements....

Phosphorus supplementation... is just a complete non-necessity IMO...

Thanks all for the feedback. I will report back once I get going. Thanks again.

I have put some nutrients in there at the end of summer, namely trace elements and magnesium sulphate, about 1 teaspoon of each per 4500 litres. But I doubt it was really needed. It was just that the Tomatoes had been huge this year and I wanted to get started on winter crops.
I have put up some photos of a 5 year old system, that gets very little attention except to thro in a handful of feed 2 or 3 times a week, daily in summer. My big breakthro has been Multiguard sluh and snail pellets, that do not affect the fish. I use about a teaspoon sprinkled onto the growled if I see slug damage, don't see them after that. I would not use it if I had crustaceans in there.

http://fennjohn.smugmug.com/Food/Aquapo ... 212_FMxHns

Best wishes

John

Be wary about using too much "sulphate" compounds... sulphates can be detremental to plant growth...

Or one could use a saucer full of beer...

Isn't there some kind of iron based snail killer??? (?)

I seem to recall reading about it ages ago, but I've never seen it since.

I'm not sure why iron would be something that might kill snails, but I'm pretty sure I read about it.

It might have been a dream. That happens sometimes to me.