Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Missed a bunch of your thread lately for some reason. Just went back a few pages and I see you have the water coming into the bed from the flex-hose at one corner. What will be happening is the water will enter the bed at that point and then take the least resistant travel way to the closest exit point. Because you have your 3 x drains across the front Id suggest running a 25mm PVC pipe across the back that the flexi can connect to and drill 6mm holes spaced about 10cm apart along the length. This will give you better even distribution of water through the bed. If you need more holes drill more, its a bit of play it by ear.

See how you lettuce is growing better in the path way from the water entry (from flex hose) to the centre and right side drain. Its a nutrient path way

Schweet, I figured it must have been something like that, but dad scavenged my distribution pipes for some retic lol and I hadn't prioritized it - I will now though. I didn't realise how much it would affect growth. I just remembered I actually have heaps from the big system though so I might go scrounging in the morning and set it up properly.


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Growth pics from last week, I've also got the distribution pipe in now which I'll post a pic of too when I get home. The silverbeet looks so amazing, I love it!
I have a few deficiencies on one side of the bed but I am going to monitor and see if the distribution pipe helps, otherwise I will work out what needs to be added. I've also just upped the feed again, and water quality is still great, so I'll see if that helps too!



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looking good kat.

Kat - You have made amazing progress in 6 months!

Some pics from this morning. We've already had a few cos lettuces and many more are ready, I also picked some silverbeet/ chard this morning. They could have grown even bigger if I'd let them, but I was making some room for light to get to a few replacement seedlings that I'd just put in.

I have a definite deficiency issue though. It's most noticeable on the rhubarb...


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I had a couple of goes at rhubarb. The last one grew enormous. The first couple kinda didn't grow at all but never worked out why. Pics will help

Whoops forgot to attach them!


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Looks like potassium or magnesium with the rhubarb, try the potassium first. Easy enough to fix up.

Looking good btw

Thanks Colum, it makes me so happy going out there and seeing a big bed full of green
The tomatoes are taking over though so I need to string them up and give them a bit of a trim. I cut some bits off and have plonked them in the other side of the GB where I had a gap, so I will replant them in the dirt garden once they have a few roots.
The AP is well out-performing the dirt beds, and takes significantly less of my time. I am STOKED with it so far

I'll have a go at the potassium first, and I've also got some epsom salts which are ultra high in magnesium. Might do a quick google and see if they're OK for AP, think they should be since people treat fish disease with them anyway.

I think some chelated iron couldn't hurt either because none of the silverbeet is particularly dark. Some is a bit yellow from the rainbow chard mix, but even the normal stuff is fairly light. But I'll go one addition at a time for now so I can monitor the results.

I should probably test my water too sometime soon. Looks aces, but who knows what's going on in there...

wow amazing that you have progressed thus far in 6 months. Happy for you.