Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

They look to big to be fungus gnats. Maybe some kind of wasp?

Di,
Are the bugs eating on your plants? Take a picture from further away to get it in focus. Even if it makes the smaller, as they look like they COULD (heavy emphasis on the could) be a type of termite or more likely a type of sawfly. Need a picture that shows the details to really make any kind of educated guess! Entomology is not my specialty but we can find out what they are.

Well, something early on was eating my spearmint but that is not happening anymore and when I found the bugs on the tomato plant, it did not seem that anything has been eaten. I have not seen anymore since I killed those ones in the last picture (except for one I just killed about 15 minutes ago in the living room - don't have it anymore to photograph. If I see another, I will click it.
I thought about termites too and pray that is not the case.... I sure don't need that.
don't know what a sawfly is so I will go look that up.
Thank you.....

did not look like a sawfly (from the pictures in your link anyway) and the wings were not as big as those on termites I don't believe (which could just be me in denial lol)
Will be watching for others.

Not sure if this will help any either.
I took this one off the sticky tape I have over the garden (they are not on any other place - I have sticky tape in several places because this year the flies are bad - they are only on the garden one.)

I put it on white paper and then put a magnifying glass over it and then zoomed in with my camera and sharpened it up in an edit program so I think that is about as good as I am gonna get lol.

ok... upon further investigation I found......

Ants vs. Termites
Termites don't have a "waist" like ants, and their antennae are straight, whereas those of ants are elbowed. Also, in termites, the two pairs of wings are equal in length; in ants, the second pair is shorter than the first pair. The wing venation is also different, which you can see by comparing photos of the two groups.
So looking through other photos that closely resemble mine, I found the two following types of ants.... (with mine looking mostly like the Tetramorium)

Solenopsis or Tetramorium

Here are two photos that came from the Tetramorium link....

Thank you, Steve, for the link... I will keep that one bookmarked... what a treasure to have at hand.

That is good enough Di. I believe you are correct in that it is a tetramorium ant, based on that 2nd picture you posted. The transition between the abdomen and thorax is what I could not tell from the 1set of pics. Here's a very nice link to the UC-Davis, Department of Ag site about them, common name is "pavement ants";
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/TOOLS/ANTKEY/pavement.html

Di, how are things progressing?

well... took a water reading today (after adding 3 more comets to the big tank) All the fish are doing well. Water.. well not so good...

Temp 75F
pH 7.4
ammonia 0.25
nitrite 0
nitrate 0

Tuesday the nitrate was a solid 5.0 but now it is a solid 0

I think I will add some tap water tomorrow if the ammonia is not up when I test it tomorrow.

The plants stopped the upward growth in fast fashion like they were but they are getting more leaves on them so I am happy about that. I don't really want the leggy plants anyway. The beans are getting up there though so I am glad they are finally getting some more leaves on them. For the longest they were getting much taller and only 2 leaves lol.
My Tomato seedlings are making new leaves as well. (photos taken today)

Thank you for asking... appreciate it. ~smiles~

the spearmint is still doing ok (has not taken off like I thought it would but it is still doing ok - which is fine.. I don't really want it to take over... I am just surprised)

The established Roma tomato plant is just sitting there... not doing anything... not growing, not flowering, not dying... nothing... same ole same ole.

Back when I played around at taking closeup pictures, I'd put my finger in front of the lens to give the camera something to focus on, then move the lens to the subject. On certain settings, this worked very well. Playing around with a pencil beam flashlight will give similar results.

You can use a foliar spay for the plants, so the nutrients get to the plants without having to put anything in the fish tank.

cell phones don't have various settings.... (well, mine does not anyway lol)

BTB, I am not so worried about the plants right now.. they are doing fine... still growing, no discoloration or anything like that... what I am trying to do it bring up the ammonia so that I can get my nitrates back. Trying to feed that bacteria (if it is still alive that is)

The water is fine... actually, many people would kill to get those numbers!

If you're lowest level "zero" of ammonia is 0.25 then you could add some more of your ammonia laden water to give a boost, or consider maybe adding a few more fish? How many are you up to now, in how much water?

What are you feeding the fish? If using standard aquarium fish food, this doesn't contain all the essential nutrients for plant growth, so you will need to supplement with seaweed extract or something similar (remember to check for ammonia before adding it to your system). Good aquaponic grade feed contains the majority of good stuff for plant growth so need less supplementation.