Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

A couple more pictures from this morning, while I was topping of the tank. My three "very expensive" koi. A buddy of mine runs a business setting up high end fish tanks, both salt and fresh, and gave me a call one afternoon to ask if i wanted some really high end koi that a customer was getting rid of. At a minimum, he was wondering if i could house them until he finds them a new home. There were originally 3, but one lept for "freedom" and, well... yeah...

They come to the front of the tank like this any time i open the sliding door I have in front of it.



Shot of the whole fish tank. The duckweed gets "farmed" from my roommate's planted tank, and the koi and comets scarf it down like crazy. I want to cordon off a corner of the tank with a floating cage to allow it to grow in the tank as well. It would likely help with my nitrate "problem" until I get plants to grow in the top more reliably.




Some sunflower sprout seeds I planted to see how they do. So far so good.

Quick update on water quality. Nice and clear, the fish seem healthy and happy. Nitrates are still high due to nothing really being available to suck them up, plantwise.

The few handfulls of shell grit I put in seem to have over-corrected the ph. It had drifted down to 6.4 or so just after i was fully cycled, and after putting in the shell grit it seemed to jump up to almost 8. It's dropped back to somewhere around 7.5 or 7.6 or so now. I removed about half of the shell grit and am planning on digging the other half out today. Unfortunately i didn't think ahead to put them in a sock or nylon paint strainer bag, etc... So, digging them out is a good idea regardless.

I would imagine that this isn't helping my plant growth, as most of the crops we're all interested in growing do best in mid 6's.

I guess the question I have, is why the shell grit raised my ph THAT much?

No pictures of this just yet but I added 200 - 300 red wigglers to the grow bed last night. I figure they can't do me anything but good as far as system health is concerned. And I'm sure the fish will appreciate the occasional snack that finds its way into the siphon drain

A couple updates as I continue to try to troubleshoot what's going on.

I grabbed a cheap lux meter that was kicking around and took some readings from various places around the grow beds. Directly under the light I had over it, I was barely getting readings of 1000, and closer to 500 around the edges of the bed. After purchasing a couple of cheap shop lights (which I know I've grown basic veggies under previously, indoors) I took some readings from those and after hanging two f those over the bed about 1 foot up, i'm getting readings of between 3000 and 5000 in various places around the grow bed.

Now I understand this isn't PAR and not apples to apples to compare the two light sources, but I think it's fair to say this is an increase in light over the one I had over it, which can only help. I also bought a spectrometer kit to take a look at some of these lights so i can get a better understanding of what intensities of what wavelengths I'm working with.

This of course pales in comparison to actual sunlight, so I'll be working on a new lighting solution to replace this, but this should at least give me an idea of if adding more light will solve most of my problems.



Any recommendations from any other indoor growers on what has worked well for you, would obviously be appreciated.


Also, here's a shot of what my pea shoot plant looks like. Its almost like the leaves are drying out, and I wonder if that could indicate there's an issue with my flood/drain cycle time, oxygen level, etc? My relative humidity in the grow room is typically in the 60's and 70's and I have a fan on low, circulating air in there. Any thoughts?

Oh, and on the plus side, the sunflowers I planted for sh*ts and giggles seem to be doing well so far. Which seems odd to me considering I imagine those to be a high light requirement plant.

So, there's been some good growth on the sunflower seeds I planted on a whim, but they are starting to exhibit some of the same odd drying of the leaves that some of the other plants seem to end up with




Similar to the pea plant that just isn't doing terribly awesome.



I did plant some new lettuce, radish, and spinach, however, and those have sprouted, so I'll be keeping track of some fresh seedlings to see if full lives under these new lights will make a difference. I've definitely grown at least lettuce under these shoplights before, so I'm hoping this eliminates a variable.

More pics and some updated water quality info/shots to come this evening.

As always, thanks for checking this out and any input is greatly appreciated!

Can't tell for sure what's going on Devin Mac. I'd harvest the sunflower seedlings and I'd pitch the peas. My guess is mold, mites, or thrips. Usually when the peas get this way you won't get much if anything off them.

Hope this helps

Yeah, I'm gonna pull everything and let the new seedlings have a go at it on their own. Well, along with the mint...

I'm gonna pull all the mint as ell sooner than later, though. I liked having it, but it's taking up space. :-)

I bought mint to put around my system, but not in. Then I was reminded why I started my ap system, I never remember to water things. Side effect of growing up in western Washington state.

I got a ton of mint out of this thing at first. It seeems to be the only thing that's thrived thusfar, honestly...

Things are slowly progressing, I think.

PH and nitrates are still high, but at least the nitrates are to be expected with a low plant load, even only feeding the fish lightly every couple days.



Sunflower seedlings are still doing alright, though they're still displaying that wierd drying of the leaves that the pea and tomato had going on. I pulled the pea plant and planted a couple new pea seeds to re-start it.

I have cucumber, spinach, radish, and lettuce sprouting now, though, so hopefully those will take hold where things have failed in the past





And slightly off topic, here's a few shots of my south american dart frog tank. It's a 35g hex with a custom LED light fixture. Bromiliads, african violet, and orchids, along with a small colony of these guys:

There is a remote possibility that the drying you are experiencing is nitrate burn. Perhaps you need more nitrate hungry plants. Peas would be the exact opposite, as they are nitrogen fixing. Perhaps throw some tomatoes in.

I did put some tomato seeds in, a couple varieties. Perhaps I'll grab a pothos or something from the hardware store and let that grow like crazy for awhile to try to suck up nitrates. I would think once I can get spinach and lettuce to start growing I won't have to worry about it as much... I need to throw together a germination rig so i can germinate and grow out seedlings to plant into here, rather than simply sowing in to the substrate.

Here are a couple shots i snapped just now of the radish seedlings and the sunflowers. I've inspected a couple dead leaves from the sunflowers with a jeweler''s loupe and there don't apppear to be any bugs or anything on them, as far as I can tell.



The radish seedlings look like they're yellowing a bit. Iron deficiency, maybe? I have a tub of chelated iron but not the foggiest idea how to figure out how much to dose. Recommendations on a good iron test kit?

Have you thought about lining the walls around the grow bed with aluminum foil to help reflect the light better?

Nice kitchen system too

I have and I probably will mylar them actually. No good reason not to except laziness.