Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I would mix it into the grow bed but put it someplace away from the plants so they don't get a concentrated dose. Otherwise mix it into a couple gallons of water and slowly add it into the fish tank.

You can put it the grow bed but my preference is to mix it in a bucket of water so i know its mixed then add it that way.

Awesome, thanks again for all the help!

I have been applying foliar spray every mroning and the yellowing on the marjoram seems to be going away, which is a promising sign, but the leaves still look a bit small, withered and curled. Hopefully they will bounce back with a bit more time!

Curling leaves usually indicates potassium deficit so I would add some potassium sulfate to bed or water as soon as possible.

Thanks ebeuerle

I added some on Friday but have given the growbed another dose today. I will give it a few days now (will keep foliar spraying) and see if there is some improvement

I have been foliar spraying every day with calcium chloride as suggested earlier but it hasn't helped much, the plants still look quite unhealthy though the potassium boost certainly seems to have fixed them up a bit. I'll take some photos as soon as I get a chance.

I am going to start foliar spraying with seasol tomorrow as I haven't had a chance to get some yet. Hopefully that will kick it up a notch

Can I boost nitrate levels by dosing with urea powder? This has been my assumption and I have been dosing in very small amounts irregularly for a while now but thought I better double check!

Couple of pictures, i think the plants are actually deteriorating. Leaf curl is pretty bad, especially towards the top and quite a few plants have developed pale yellow spotting and blotching. I have started foliar spraying with seasol every morning. Any other thoughts, ideas or suggestions?


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I need some good close ups of the plants with curly leaves particularly the tall one in the background. I'd like to see the underside of the leaves and a close up along the stem, top and bottom leaves if you can. Sometimes spider mites cause damage like this, otherwise, in spite of the additions I think you have a combination of problems. Does this system just have the one fish and what have you got for nitrate levels?

Might be interesting to see what adding a dollop of vermicompost at the base of one of these pepper plants or adding some blood and bone would do for it. If it's not spider mites, I'm thinking if you've only got the one fish maybe the nutrients are too low for the plant production so you're seeing some combination problems with nutrient deficiencies.

A couple of people here use Blood and Bone to get their systems through periods when they don't have enough fish - might be a thought. It provides nitrogen which can cause the ammonia to spike although so far I haven't heard of anyone who has used it having this problem. Gunagulla and Gabe are the two people I remember using it. Gabe used 10gm/cubic meter of grow bed area. Gordon (Gunagulla) was using 100 to 200 gm every two weeks or so (basically when the plants looked like they needed it) for a system with 6000 L of water 4500L was grow bed.

Vermicompost varies a lot in content but usually has lots of nutrients and bacteria and acts a lot like a slow release fertilizer with many plant available nutrients.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the reply scotty, I also have suspected it is an overall lack of nutrients in the system frim just having this one fish. I might look at re-homing him in a tank and filling this tank with something more capable of living in a communal environment

I don't know the nitrates level as I don't have a testing kit, I tried to get one yesterday but they were sold out. In the meanwhile I have a working wormfarm next to the tank so I'll add some vermiculture from there and perhaps some blood and bone and see if I can get a bit of a revival going.

I will get some close up photos as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for all the help, it is much appreciated!