Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

G'day All,

I am new to this game. I have just built a 1800l pond and using a 350l old bath as a grow bed.

Flood and drain 15mins in 60. I cycled the water without fish for a couple of weeks adding seasol every second day. The plants weren't growing at all.

I added 20 small goldfish (40mm) a couple of weeks ago, so the set up has been running for about 2 months.

The plants still aren't gowing! Lettuces I have planted at the same time in my raised earth beds are nearly ready to harvest and the tomatoes are flowering. The water in the pond has a green tinge to it and I need to add acid each day to keep bringing the pH down (I have finally got it to 7.2pH). All other test are good (eg no ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)

I would be open to any suggestions!

Cheers Don

Hi Don,

Welcome to the Forum.

Greenish tinge to the water is probably algae. Many aquatic plants have the ability to take up ammonia and nitrites directly so they are probably robbing the nutrients from your other plants. Blocking the light from the Fish Tank and Sump (if you have one) would probably help. If you're feeding flake food to the goldfish you won't have good results, someone here can probably point you to a quality feed in your area (a lot of people use Purina feeds here in the states). Beyond telling you this I'd probably need to see the plants but I can tell you it takes awhile for the AP to really kick in - about 6 months to a year.

Could be
1. General lack of nutrients
a) Low quality feed
b) Nutrient being robbed by plants or algae
2. Nutrient deficiency - usually unavailable because of pH or bound in wrong form
3. Temperature of the water - cooler water temps usually slow or stop plant growth. For warm weather plants (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, squash... basil is particularly sensitive) probably below 60 F or roughly 15 C
4. Low light levels - plants will grow slowly but may look spindly as well.

There are probably other causes that I just can't think of right now but this will get you started.

Thanks for that Scotty.

Yes the green will be algae. It is interesting you talk about the temperature. I don't know what the water temp is but we have had air temps in the high 30's to mid 40's and that is Celsius.

I lok forward to other comments and will take some pics and put them up.

Cheers Don

Ok fellow sandgroper. Firstly, welcome to the forum.
Couple of questions.
How long has your system been running?
What ammonia source did you use to cycle? (Seasol has no ammonia.)
And what media are you using?

OK,
It may seem that I have used the wrong term when talking cycle. I didn't add ammonia before or since adding fish. I had better start learning the lingo!
The system has been running for about 3 months and about 1.5 months with the fish in.
The media is expanded clay (European).

May be I'm just not patient enough?

Cheers Don

As Scotty said earlier it can take a while before it comes into its own.
My system has been ticking away for almost a year and I too compare the growth to what I'm used to in the dirt and have been disappointed, although I'm expecting it to get up and boogie once this stoopid heat abates.
And, yes, patience is the mantra.
Early days.