Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

After 6 weeks or so with my new system, I am just about ready to add fish. In the meantime I have been adding Charlie Carp and Seasol occasionally. After replacing about 60% of my water with tap water to reduce ammonia overload, the water quality is on track and almost ready.

In the meantime, my basil cutting has taken off with gigantic leaves. They are about 4-6 times larger than my potted basil plant that I fertilize with Seasol on a semi-regular basis. Imagine what will happen once I introduce my fish.

Its showing Calcium deficiency as well.

dasboot,

Will the calcium deficiency be helped by a large bag of shell grit introduced 2 days ago or do I have to add some other supplement?

Depends on your PH,it really won’t start doing anything until your PH drops to 6.8 and below,shell grit is roughly 60% Calcium Carbonate,i use Calcium Hydroxide[brickies lime]sparingly as i have a neutral PH.

By the way dasboot, how do you tell it has Calcium deficiency?

So you meant GB not FT - I wondered how it grew in the FT..



I kinda doubt that you will see any good difference, as you had to reduce the nitrogen levels, via water change, to get the levels back to acceptable..
So you are saying it grew massively with an overdose of nitrogen.. thus it won't likely do as well at safe levels..
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By the cupping and deformation of the leaves,the lack of Calcium hinders cell elongation hence the deformation and also makes the leaf margins grow slower than the rest hence the cupping.By the look of the pic the small Basil looks ok,maybe this plant is growing so fast it can’t uptake enough Calcium to fully meet its requirement.. ..

That's interesting to know. Thanks for that. This forum is a wealth of information.

Sorry about the misunderstanding between the FT and the GB. The basil is in the GB but since it contains inert volcanic rock, I assumed the nutrients were coming from the FT - hence the question about what was in solution in the my FT to make the basil grow so well.

You are right it is in your fish tank and in all of the water,here is a really good explanation of whats going on in your media bed.

http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html

One more for you this time Nutrient Facts,this is a paper which you should download on to your computer for future reference,i think this is an excellent paper.... and one where i look back on for reference.
http://5e.plantphys.net/article.php?id=289.

and thanks for that - All good stuff.. BOOKMARKED

My problem is looking at the photos and trying to decide WHICH one looks like the issue..
I suppose it is a case of eliminating the ones you know it won't be..

One interesting thought I have when seeing these suggestions, is the potential contradictions with Aqua Culture basics..
eg.. what is a ZINC DEFICIENCY..??? When is it ADEQUATE, and when is it hazardous to the fish..

I bought a big tub of moisture-absorbent stuff.. Calcium Chloride..

Anyone have thoughts on pros and cons.. I wonder what the chloride would end up as..
At least it is fulfilling both the Ca and the Cl needs..
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Calcium Chloride is very good for Foliar applications, as for things like zinc etc,i think that providing your using a good quality food we shouldn’t have to worry about it.....