Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey guys,

I'm pretty new to all of this, and before getting big I've tried to build something small inside my home, but failing miserably... The issue I'm having is that eventually, all my plants seem to rot away at the roots. Most plants I've put in there (green onion, swiss chard, basi) grow incredibly at the the beginning, but then slowly die off. Lettuce worked well on the bottom for a few weeks before dying, but when i put it on the top for more light, it rotted in just a few days.

I have an indor system set up for 15 minutes on, 45 minutes off with hyrdoton, a 20W bulb, in a planted fishtank with about a dozen fish. Here's a screenshot.

http://prntscr.com/8dxnrv

Could it be that simply the lightning is insufficient? Im totally sure the system is draining properly. The water level is about 2-3 inches, though to me it does it look like the plants are just getting too wet? Maybe I'll try plant some of them much higher in the soil and see how they do.

Any advice would be much appreciated. This forum has helped me so much, so thank you!

I'd be thinking not enough light is the most likely culprit if the water level isn't too high.

def not enough light but i dont think thats the issue u are dealing with right now

whats ur ph?

is the top of the hydroton wet?
how old is ur system?
how deep r ur beds?

any other water tests that u have done do tell

Thanks for the quick responses!

The top layer is dry, and the entire system is about 4 months old. At first I was flooding to pretty close to the top, but I had some help in here that suggested i only need a few inches, so yeah I now have 3 inches of water, in about 8/9 inches of hydroton. The plant roots are about half way in the bed, so an inch(ish) above water flow.

Beds are about 8 inches deep, with 3 inches of that being water.

I'm out for today, but i'll run a test strip tomorrow and will let you know. Thanks again

Your timing looks right, but you could try playing with it to dry the beds a little more, if you're sure it's the roots rotting as a problem not a symptom. What do you have in your fishtank and how often do you feed them?

the 10$ test strip kits show that everything is pretty much ok.
Ph is about 7.2. I haven't done a water change in 2 months, so my nitrite levels are a bit high, but the tests still show that it's in the OK zone of 25mg/l. I'll do a water change now.

In regards to fish, I have about 10-15 guppies, and 2 fatty goldfish. It's a 40 gal tank, and i feed them a tiny pinch every day. I'll see how feeding them less fairs.

25mg/l is prob fine
can u upload some better/more pics so we can see the plants rot?

There was also a bit of mold starting on the hydroton, so i've cleaned it out, did a 20% water change, and have removed the plants. I didn't see any mold on the plants, but there was surely a decent amount of dead roots. Could this have been the issue? i'd be glad to hear that installing a small fan would solve this. Like I said, the plants did amazingly well for the first few weeks to a month of being planted, but after that everything slowly went down hill...

Also, how much lighting do you think would be adequate?

I pulled everything out. The green onions were the plant that always thrived in this environment, but one by one they all slowly got soft and had to go.

Here's a shot of the chard.
http://i.imgur.com/a9mhkKY.jpg

Here's the setup in June, where everything was doing great.
http://prntscr.com/8enz4u

I would guess the plants are not getting enough water as opposed to getting too wet. Change your timer to 15 on and 15 off or try bypassing the timer and running the system 24x7. Also, the roots should be touching the water. If the plants don't have enough light, they will grow very tall and appear to be 'reaching' for the light.

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

I'm pretty sure the roots were in the water, but i'll pay a closer attention with a 15/15 timer and see if i make any progress.

Usually it's either too much or too little water. Too little is pretty obvious but much can encourage root rot and then the plant can't take up moisture even if it's there - If the roots were brown and mushy before the plants died that's probably an indication that there is a root rot problem. Low light levels and/or nutrient deficiencies make the plants more susceptible to root rot.

Ok, so here i am again, and still struggling

A while back I put the timer to constant flow and got the same result. If you guys think that this problem is simply the result of water level, i'm going to put 4 or 5 green onions in there, all at different hgieghts to find out if it's really the cause, but i truly doubt it.


My water parameters are:
no2 0
No3 25
Gh 12
Kh 6
Ph 6.8

I did a 20% water change two days ago. Because I have a high volume filter in there already, and my tap water has 0 nitrates, i suspect my plant bed has some built up fish goo that is the cause of high no3s.. Will this hurt the plants, or is it only a problem for the fish? Anyways, i've just now put a fine filter in the pump inlet and outlet, and will run the pump on constant cycle for a couple days to clean it out.

Thanks much for the previous advice, and i'd be glad to hear any more suggestions.

Cheers

If you do have a fish waste buildup in the grow beds it can be a problem if it smothers the roots. 25 for nitrates isn't going to be a problem. If it keeps going up then you need more plants.

What kind of fine filter is on the pump now?

Have you done anything with the light levels?

It's just a finger sponge that i took off an old filter. The light levels are the same. I can upgrade them if necessary, but really don't want to dump more money into this if it's really not the lights...