Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The ammonia is being converted to nitrate and it's being taken up by the plants - at least that's what it looks like. I would say your system must already be cycled or there is something wrong with the results. I'm not sure what's going on with the pH.

Test it a couple more times and see what you get.

I retested the pH and got ~7.2, which is as I'd expect. I'm not sure how fast the ammonia conversion works, can it go from 8ppm to 0.25ppm in 24 hours? It didn't show up in the nitrites either. Nitrate seems to have risen slightly.

I'd agree it seems to be cycled. Now just need to work out if it's safe for fish!

I do seem to bet getting a little yellowing on the newer growth, which is really confusing given how much seaweed nutrients i overdosed the system with!

Some pictures of the yellowing, especially on the tomato :





Higher resolution at : http://photos.memetic.org/index.php?album=Aquaponics

It seemed like iron deficiency (though i'd only dosed with a teaspoon or so of eddha iron chelate 2 weeks ago), so i dropped in another tablespoon of chelate and i'll see how it reacts tomorrow.

The yellowing on the cucumber seems to have cleared up. Man, this looking after the requirements of living things malarky is hard!

I'm not really certain how fast the ammonia is converted either but it can be pretty rapid if the bacteria numbers are high. It's going to vary with some other factors as well, like temperature.



This makes sense if the Nitrogen was in short supply. Since Nitrogen is a mobile element the plant can send it to the new growth and the old growth will be what looks yellow because of this.



I think you're right about this being an Iron deficiency and you did the right thing to add more. FYI - Some people spray the iron on as a foliar application, works a bit faster.

Don't remember if I've posted this information in your thread but it helps with diagnosing deficiencies - if I haven't here goes -

Mobile and Immobile Nutrients -
Mobile Nutrients - Deficiencies show on old growth first
Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Molybdenum, Magnesium and Zinc

Immobile Nutrients - Deficiencies show on new growth first
Iron, Copper, Manganese, Chlorine, Cobalt, Boron, Calcium, Sulfur

The most common deficiencies in AP are Iron, Potassium and Nitrogen. Some plants like tomatoes and peppers may need additional Phosphorus - see this video for information - http://verticalfoodblog.com/phosphorus-in-aquaponics/

cheers

Great thread

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Hi Guys, was too busy to get any testing yesterday, but I did get a photo of the growbed.



The tomato got a bit yellower on the top, even after the chelate was added. The cucumber seems to have let off the breaks!

Oh, and I brought a strawberry runner into the grow bed to try to root it.

Do the veins on the tomato look darker that the rest of the leaf (another way to describe this is interveinal chlorosis). If they are then probably iron, if not then probably not enough waste being generated so low nitrogen.

Ok, so today's test and growbed photo :





The test seems to show the pH dropping a little more (I but a bigish cleaned sea shell in the growbed to try to buffer this), not much change on the ammonia or nitrite, but perhaps a slight drop in nitrates.

Most of the plants seem ok. The right hand tomato fell over in the wind. The left hand tomato seems to be even yellower, but the newest growth does seem green now.

I pulled out one of the peppers to check roots, they it had put roots down about 3cm and only about 1cm outwards. I'm really confused by that, as it probably had more roots when I first put it in!

And finally a photo of the poor yellow tomato



Higher resolution photos at http://photos.memetic.org/index.php?album=Aquaponics

Hi scotty,

There's a really high res picture here : http://photos.memetic.org/Aquaponics/Tomato%202014-04-14%201730.jpg

The veins seem very green and the interveinal areas seem very... yellow. I've lokoed all over for another explanation, but it does seem to be iron. I put some chelate in a few days ago, but I'm not sure how quickly it should help (or if i even put enough in, i only put in a teaspoon or so, but the water is still pretty red). The odd thing is, the other plants don't show the same issue, even the other tomato (admittedly that one doesn't seem to be growing, but i can see its roots growing down the side of the bed)

I posted before the new pics, it does look like Iron deficiency. Seems like the plant that needs it the most is the one that shows the deficiency first. Try mixing up some of the iron chelate in a spray bottle to spray the plants with. I'm not certain of the amounts for this but I know I've seen it.

Ok, I mixed up a tiny bit of chelate in some water and gave the plants a good spray. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit greener!

For next time -

I didn't think to mention this but you can just use what they list on the bottle for foliar applications. It will probably will be around a 1 teaspoon per gallon (if they list anything).

cheers

Hi All. Been a but busy recently, but here are some pictures and progress



Everything seems to be growing pretty well now, except that stupid tomato! Even the tomato on the right which was in stasis for a while seems to be alive. Basil on the left got squished a bit by the cucumber!



The nitrogen seems to have gone from ~40ppm to >80<160ppm in the last week. Ammonia is still off the scale, but the test is less dark, so it's chugging away. No nitrates as I assume the bottleneck in the system is the Ammonia -> Nitrate conversion.

pH seems a touch higher than it was when I tested a few days ago. I plopped a small piece of limestone and a seashell in there to try to bring it up.

What's going on with that Ammonia do you know where it's coming from? Have you been adding a Nitrogen source (still no fish I hope)?

Plants look better. Looks like the Iron deficiency problems are going away

pH looks about right 6.5 to 7.0 is a good target.

I think I way overdosed the system with ammonia after the fish died. I've not added anything except iron for the past 2-3 weeks.

I guess the system just has to work through all of the ammonia I added!

I'm not sure if that tomato plant is much better, it still looks like ass to me!

http://photos.memetic.org/Aquaponics/Tomato%2020140-04-20.jpg

I think there may be something in the locale which is damaging the tomato plants as I have issues with them in pots too, from several different types.