Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have from the start and will continue to add seasol and chelated iron to my system every couple of months.

Oh and welcome Tim, neat little system you have there

Update:
It's been about a week. Have continued to add Iron Chelate and spray Liquid Fish on leaves once a week. There has been little change, I still have new growth popping out (some plants better than others) and still have black leaves. Some leaves on my cantaloupe actually got worse, but again near the growing end there are still blooms and new growth. I bought the liquid fish because it has the same ingredients on the label as the liquid seaweed with the addition of Nitrogen and Chlorine. Hope that is ok. Fish are now eating pellets, I was worried they were too big, the fish cant swallow them but I think they are nibbling on them as they soften in the water. After checking the goldfish, they all look pretty fat. Doing that twice a day, added another 10 fingerlings. PH down to 8-8.2 from 8.4, Nitrites and Nitrates still at 0-.5.
Another issue is a brown slime on most of my roots, I have always had a small amount, but now it seems to be really building up. It pulls off easily, but is kind of thick and spongy. Any ideas? I have included pics in the following posts. Sorry they are landscape, website did not like them in portrait. Thanks again in advance for comments!

More Pics.

More Pics.

those roots tell the story.. root rot.. you need cleaner water (filtered) going to the plants.. you won't get any growth with that going on

Also noticed my air pump went out yesterday, after some reading, I'm finding poorly oxygenated water can help cause this. Going to get new pump and air stones today. What can I do to fix? Clean roots and replace? Please help!!!

Aha! You need to be pumping your fish water either into a solids swirl filter, or into gravel/hydroton/some type of media filled grow bed(s) to filter the water before it runs through the NFT channels.

The way it is set up now, the plant roots are being mucked up with the fish waste.

If the water runs through the media filled grow bed(s) first, there will still be plenty of nutrients minus all the solids for the NFT plants. Then you can have large root plants (tomatoes) in the grow bed without fear of them tipping over out of the NFT channels.

You have all the parts and pieces, its just a matter of rearranging them. Got more pics of the system from a few feet back that would show the overall arrangement?

+1

Would making a swirl filter out of a 5 gallon bucket to feed the nft's be good enough?

Thanks!

From the size of your fish "tank", it looks like a 5 gallon pail would work. Do you know how to make one?

1. Find an easy way to drain the solids - a simple tap at the bottom of the filter
2. Make it high enough that gravity would flow well enough to the NFT tubes
3.Make it low enough that you can still do maintenance on the thing without climbing a ladder.
4. Possibly lower the NFT pipes and growbeds
5. Check to make sure your pump will push high enough to actually get the water to the top of the swirl filter - without burning out. Some of these pumps are designed to have a certain amount of water flowing through to keep them cool. Otherwise it would just turbulate the water inside the pipe and not get anywhere. Turbulate? Hhhhmmm, think I just made up a new word.

Update: Thanks for all the input! I installed the swirl filter and removed all the nft plant cups and cleaned/removed the dead and dying roots. I had already lost a few plants by the time this happened and I'm sure I will lose a few more. I also noticed the nft tubes had alot of gunk in them (stuff from the fish barrell, dirt that I apparently did not clean off the plants when placing them in the cups, sediment from the rocks that I also did not clean sufficiently). Rinsed the tubes out really good, lesson learned on making sure everything is sanitized before adding to the system. I have stepped up the iron to two teaspoons twice a week and spraying the liquid fish three times a week. The squash and cantaloupe look to be improving as do the peppers slowly. Testing a couple times a week reveals ph @8 and nitrites and nitrates still @ 0-.5. How long should the system take to "cycle" to the point of supporting itself? Am i screwed for the season? Took some larger pics of the system.

Thanks in advance!

Don't overdose on your nutrients, you can burn the plants leave with too much. It say your are going a bit heavy on the iron.

I'd say lack of solids filtration got you mote than a lack on sanitizing at setup. Alot of people dint even wash the gravel for their growbeds

Are you screwed for the season? Well it depends on your goals. Your veggies will go okay provide you have a biofilter and a source of ammonia for the bacteria to convert. This could be from fish... Or dosing with ammonia. As far as fish go...one won't be able to stock to full density untill u are fully cycled, so if your plan was for a big fish harvest, you might be out of luck as it takes about 6 weeks to cycle properly

Might want to back off on adding so much iron. Keep an eye on your PH. It is higher than the optimal 6.8 - 7.3 area needed for nitrate uptake to the plants.

Hate to have to say this, but... patience is needed to let the system do what it needs to do to sort itself out. Nah, your not screwed. Just have some patience. The second year is better than the first, the third better than the second, etc...

Spraying liquid fish as in foliar spray? Good stuff, but check the iron content as it might already have enough included that you don't need the iron supplements.

Do you have a tap on the bottom of the swirl filter where you can drain off the solids? Depending on what type of fish and how much you feed them, that thing will need drained off once a week or more. Just all depends. Whatever you do, don't waste the solids. Great fertilizer for dirt growing plants or a worm bed.

Nice system. Keep testing the water if you want to, but it may be better if you hold off on too many improvements until the system gets established.

Edit: Ah I see the good Doctor beat me to the post. lol

Thanks for the comments! To answer some of your questions: I do have a dump valve on the bottom of the swirl, I have been checking the bucket, it is slowly getting covered. I am feeding the @ 30 fat goldfish fingerlings small pellets. Not worried about a fish harvest, just want to keep them alive thru to next season.
Patience is my problem for sure, ya'll are right. I just got really excited about this and really want it to work. I should just let the system do it's thing. I will back off the iron, the liquid fish seemed like it had more nutrients than the liquid seaweed. Think it would be ok to put in the water with the fish instead of spraying?
Will post some more pictures in a week.

Thanks Again!

Hmm. I put my seasol directly in the water. But double check the stuff you got has a similar make up to our seasol. The good think about the spray is that the plant will take the nutrients in without any chance of it being locked up in chemical reactions in the water due to high ph.... Though u have low ph currently, so the only disadvantage I can see by adding to the waters if your fish liquid contains extra ammonia or it reduce ph further....meh